The big question, and please don’t go ape on me, is were these workers actually here with proper visas, did corporate screw up, or was this willful action on the part of the individuals?

I’m tired of seeing stories with no real facts and similarly tired of comment sections discussing the issue without them either.

What actually happened here?

The specifics of this depend on information that only ICE has, which they're being uncharacteristically circumspect about. This report has the most detail I've seen, though still not much: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/12/immigration-...

I have seen acknowledgements in the Korean press that there may have been some irregularity on the corporate end due to the administrative complexities involved. Given that SK is quite bureaucratic itself, that seems to me like a criticism they would be receptive towards. But the security measures like shackling all detainees and the bad detention conditions are landing with the public there (according to friends of mine as well as this editorial article) as an insult to Korean dignity which is really intolerable, eg leading respectable political figures there to muse openly about whether the time has come for SK to have an independent nuclear deterrent.

I think US policymakers often fail to realize that the US is an outlier among developed countries for the severity and indignity of its law enforcement practices. Most countries grant criminal defendants far more privacy pending conviction, in contrast to the publication of mugshots and home addresses that obtain in many US jurisdictions, and are far less inclined toward the use of physical restraints or harsh detention environments. South Korea in particular associates systematically harsh conditions with the autocratic regime of North Korea so they've been deeply startled to see such conditions inflicted upon their nationals by their main ally.

I believe a lot of them were on B-1/B-2 business visas (or equivalent ESTA), which are typically intended for "business meetings", not for "work". However, because the US immigration system is completely broken. getting a real work visa such as an H-1B or an L-1 is a time consuming process. The historical equilibrium has been that some kinds of things classified as "work" are permissible on B-1/B-2 visas.

A similar activity that technically flouts the rules is responding to your work email while on a business trip. Or for software people, reviewing PRs on GitHub. Neither of those activities are business meetings, but both are generally tolerated.

Chesterton's fence is kind of important! The overall problem is that the world has become globalized but immigration policy just hasn't kept up.

None of this is to defend in any way the appalling conditions the workers were subjected to. But also, note that these conditions are not out of the ordinary. People get stuck in immigration detention for years.

Putting these people into chains was, as the linked article puts it: "Imperial Tyranny", and a completely unnecessary humiliation of the workers. Regardless of their visa status.

I find it odd that people seem to sincerely not understand how much grey area there is regarding some of these issues. I'm pretty sure at least once in our careers most people have traveled internationally for business, but been told to say it's "personal". These cases could all potentially be violating visa laws, but most people don't think of themselves as "illegal immigrants" in these scenarios.

In this case the issue seem to be a debate around specifically what types of work these people were permitted to perform on their visas, with the union arguing, in their self-interest, that the work they were doing did not qualify.

It doesn't matter if they were or weren't. Its a fucking civil offense at best.

This woman called ICE and they shackled these people up like it was the 1800s again.

a leaked document shows that at least one person was recognized to have the appropriate visa and was coerced into leaving "voluntarily". no details on how prevalent this was have been released

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/10/hyundai-fact...

Here’s a fact we know, South Koreans are eligible for the VWP. [1]

[1] https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/tourism-...

At least some of them were not on the correct visas, and it's possible some may have overstayed.

The most egregious violation was that they were using Korean contractors for construction and there is no visa for that.

Also if you are going on a business trip, your company organises your visa for you. You cant really refuse, it's part of your job. So I feel quite sorry for these workers becuase they've been caught in the crossfire.

From what I can tell, the company did misuse the specific visa but it's generally a grey area that the US has historically turned a blind eye to. Given that Korea is a strong ally of the US and the project was done at the behest of Trump for reviving manufacturing, I feel like some leeway should've been given & more diplomatic means used rather than parading the Koreans around like gang members

Usually when a company needs to send someone to another country to do training or some work for a week or two they just go as tourist because it’s incredibly expensive and time-consuming to get a proper work visa issued for them for one or two weeks. Especially if you need someone over right away to deal with an emergency so the world just sort of assumes you do that. It’s not the letter of the law but the system in place doesn’t allow for these sorts of situations.

We should demand more transparency from our authorities - I don’t think they have been very forthcoming with the information

What was the point of making this big spectacle of it

> I’m tired of seeing stories with no real facts and similarly tired of comment sections discussing the issue without them either.

Major stories (NYT) have covered at least one person wrongly detained:

> Almost 500 people were detained during a raid of a Georgia battery plant owned by two South Korean manufacturers last week, the largest immigration enforcement operation at one location in the history of the Department of Homeland Security.

> But in at least one instance, officials admitted a worker was employed legally and forced him to leave the country anyway, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/12/business/economy/hyundai-...

FT says it all: Korean companies admit cutting corners on US visas but say they have little choice. South Korean companies have routinely used unsuitable visas for workers sent to the US to build multibillion-dollar advanced manufacturing sites, according to Seoul-based executives and industry groups

https://www.ft.com/content/c677b9aa-2e89-4feb-a56f-f3c8452b3...

The completely valid and sufficient reason to "go ape" on you is that there exists a process for determining these things, and no part of the process is shackling hundreds of people together half naked and forcing them to lick water from plates.