▲ This photo, captured from a video clip from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), shows people arrested during an immigration raid on an electric vehicle battery plant construction site, operated by South Korean companies, Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution Ltd., on Sept. 4, 2025, (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

By Song Sang-ho

WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 (Yonhap) -- More than 300 South Korean workers who were detained in a U.S. immigration raid at a Korean battery plant site in Georgia last year are taking legal action against the U.S. government in the first major legal challenge over the immigration crackdown under President Donald Trump, a report said Tuesday.

CNN reported that administrative claims on behalf of the workers have started to be filed with nine U.S. agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Departments of Justice and Labor, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the news network said, citing a lawyer representing the workers.

The claims are a mandatory step before a federal lawsuit is filed.

U.S. authorities carried out an immigration raid at an electric vehicle battery plant construction site for a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution in Georgia in September last year, leading to the arrest of 475 people, a majority of them South Koreans.

The authorities cast the raid as "the largest single site enforcement operation in the history of Homeland Security Investigations," arguing that the workers were illegally present in the United States, including some who illegally crossed the border into the U.S. and some who were under a visa waiver program that prohibits them from working.

CNN introduced a claim by a South Korean worker that he was unlawfully detained and "subjected to demeaning living conditions" while in a detention facility for seven days, and that the raid resulted in "intentional infliction of emotional distress, humiliation ... and lasting psychological trauma."

The claim seeks damages for confiscated belongings, lost work and psychological harm, and alleges false imprisonment, abuse of process and intentional infliction of emotional distress, it said.

Each of the 300 workers had similar claims, a lawyer representing the claimants told CNN.

The aim of filing claims is to make the US government acknowledge an "enormous, unjust mistake" and "admit it and apologize," the outlet said, citing the lawyer.

Last year's immigration raid raised questions about U.S. reliability as a stable investment destination. Following the incident, Seoul and Washington deepened cooperation in addressing visa-related issues facing skilled Korean workers.

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