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Christopher Webb@cwebbonline · Sep 7, 2025

🧵 Something folks are missing here: this raid wasn’t about “illegals taking American jobs.” It was about ICE storming…

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Summary

An ICE raid on a Hyundai-LG battery plant in Georgia arrested over 300 South Korean engineers and specialists who were building the facility, not taking jobs—the plant wasn't scheduled to open until 2025-2026. The raid, apparently orchestrated as a political stunt by a Republican candidate, risks damaging U.S.-South Korea relations and jeopardizing thousands of future American jobs at the facility.

Summarized by ThreadOut AI from the full thread. May miss nuance — read the thread below.

  1. #1

    🧵 Something folks are missing here: this raid wasn’t about “illegals taking American jobs.” It was about ICE storming the Hyundai–LG battery plant in Georgia, part of a $7.6B Metaplant project that isn’t even operational yet. They dragged out more than 300 South Korean engineers and specialists. People flown in to help stand the place up so it could eventually employ thousands of Georgians/Americans. This plant wasn’t scheduled to start running until late 2025 or early 2026. These workers weren’t taking jobs; they were building the factory that would create them.

  2. #2

    Reports suggest this wasn’t about “undocumented” workers. At worst, it was visa infractions—the wrong paperwork, the wrong classification. Instead of sorting it out, we humiliated our allies and hauled their workers off in shackles. South Korea is one of America’s most important partners. And in an election stunt, we just told them their people are expendable. Farmers already learned this lesson in Alabama when crops rotted in the fields. Now Georgia might learn it the hard way with batteries. The questions we should be asking: will this plant ever get up and running on time—or did politics just kneecap one of the biggest clean energy projects in the country? And is the damage done to our relationship with South Korea long-term? 2/3

  3. #3

    Now let’s chat about the “informant” and her ill-thought-out plan. Tori Branum, a Republican running in Georgia’s 12th, bragged about pushing the ICE raid on Hyundai’s construction site. It was a political stunt. But she didn’t think it through. The raid stalled a battery plant that isn’t even scheduled to open until 2026—a plant that would have employed Georgians in good-paying jobs. She screwed her own voters. Most of the South Korean workers weren’t “taking jobs.” They were specialists brought in to get the plant operational. Their expertise was the bridge to thousands of American jobs down the line. 3/3

  4. #4

    Just adding this. Good feedback and nuance on S Korean’s POV. Also supports many of the points I made in the thread. 4/4