Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inboxGet our free Inside Washington emailGet our free Inside Washington emailTen days after American immigration agents arrested hundreds of South Korean workers at a car plant in Georgia, Donald Trump said he did not want to “frighten off or disincentivise investment” and maintained that foreign workers were welcome in the country. The immigration raid at the factory, a joint venture of South Korean firms Hyundai and LG Energy Solution, saw nearly 500 workers, mostly South Koreans, arrested and bound in chains. The raid, conducted over alleged visa violations, sparked outrage in South Korea, with public officials calling it “bewildering” and unions demanding an apology. The South Koreans have since returned home despite Mr Trump reportedly trying to convince them at the last minute to stay and train American workers. Analysts, meanwhile, warned the incident could undermine the Trump administration’s effort to attract foreign investment. The Georgia factory is being constructed with billions of dollars in investment from South Korean firms.“When foreign companies who are building extremely complex products, machines, and various other ‘things’ come into the United States with massive investments,” Mr Trump said in a Truth Social post, “I want them to bring their people of expertise for a period of time to teach and train our people how to make these very unique and complex products, as they phase out of our country, and back into their land.” “If we didn’t do this,” the president continued, “all of that massive investment will never come in the first place – chips, semiconductors, computers, ships, trains, and so many other products that we’ve to learn from others how to make, or, in many cases, relearn, because we used to be great at it, but not anymore.“For example, shipbuilding, where we used to build a ship a day and now, we barely build a ship a year. I don’t want to frighten off or disincentivise investment into America by outside countries or companies. “We welcome them, we welcome their employees, and we are willing to proudly say we will learn from them, and do even better than them at their own ‘game,’ sometime into the not too distant future!” Banner depicting Donald Trump as an immigration agent is placed by protesters at the Incheon airport in Seoul, South Korea, on 12 September 2025 (AP)In Seoul, South Korean diplomats said deputy secretary of state Christopher Landau had expressed regret over the mass arrest of Korean workers in Georgia and proposed using the incident to improve the system and strengthen bilateral relations. “Deputy secretary Landau expressed deep regret over the incident and proposed using it as a turning point to improve the system and strengthen the South Korea-US relationship,” the South Korean foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that Korean officials had pressed the Trump administration to create a new visa category to avoid such incidents.Mr Landau earlier wrote on X the US “welcomes and encourages foreign investment in our country and therefore logically welcomes and encourages the personnel necessary to get those investments up and running”.“These are the kind of visitors we want, who are CREATING American jobs and prosperity right here at home. Korean companies are poised to make MASSIVE new investments in our country (in shipbuilding among other industries), and – as I emphasised to our Korean friends – we in the @StateDept will ensure that they have the necessary and proper visas to comply with our laws,” he said.
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Trump doesn’t want to ‘frighten’ foreign investors after mass arrest of South Korean workers
