South Korea president says Korean companies will hesitate to invest in US without better visa system.
South Korea’s president says that South Korean companies will likely hesitate to maintain or make direct investments in the United States if the U.S. fails to improve its visa system for Korean workers
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s president said Thursday that South Korean companies will likely hesitate to maintain or make direct investments in the United States if the U.S. fails to improve its visa system for Korean workers.
In a news conference marking 100 days in office, Lee called for improvements in the U.S. visa system as he spoke about the Sept. 4 immigration raid in Georgia that resulted in the arrest of more than 300 South Korean workers at a battery factory under construction at Hyundai’s sprawling auto plant in Georgia.
Lee said the Korean workers are set to be brought home on Friday aboard a charter plane following negotiations with the U.S.
The massive roundup in Georgia, and U.S. authorities’ release of video showing some workers being chained and taken away, sparked widespread anger and a sense of betrayal in South Korea. The raid came less than two weeks after a summit between President Donald Trump and Lee, and just weeks after the countries reached a July agreement that spared South Korea from the Trump administration’s highest tariffs, but only after Seoul pledged $350 billion in new U.S. investments.
Lawmakers from both Lee’s liberal Democratic Party and the conservative opposition decried the detentions as outrageous and heavy-handed, while South Korea’s biggest newspaper compared the raid to a “rabbit hunt” executed by U.S. immigration authorities in a zeal to meet an alleged White House goal of 3,000 arrests a day.
During the news conference, Lee said South Korean and U.S. officials are discussing a possible improvement to the U.S. visa system, adding that under the current system South Korean companies “can’t help hesitating a lot” about making direct investments in the U.S.
U.S. authorities said some of the detained workers had illegally crossed the U.S. border, while others entered legally but had expired visas or entered on visa waivers that prohibited them from working.
