hankyoreh

Workers at a battery plant construction site in Georgia stand with their hands against a van during an immigration raid carried out by ICE and other federal and state authorities on Sept. 4, 2025. (ICE/Yonhap)

By Kim Won-chul, Washington correspondent

“I think it’s a very nuanced and responsible and sensible approach,” White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt stated on behalf of US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, a very uncharacteristic tone for the president. 
 
After 300 or so South Korean workers were arrested in a raid on the Hyundai-LG battery plant in Ellabell, Georgia, Trump stated that he “understood” that foreign companies would want to bring highly skilled and trained workers with them when making investments in the US, but also “expected” them to train and teach American workers.
 
Trump is the proud originator of the catchphrase “Make America Great Again.” The MAGA ideology revolves around two pillars that directly contradict each other: revitalizing the American manufacturing industry and opposing immigration. Many questioned Trump and his ideology, continuously asking if it would be possible to bring about the heyday of US manufacturing while shunning immigration.
 
Trump had to come up with some sort of answer after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency that represents everything he stands for, raided a site lauded as a great investment in US manufacturing and arrested hundreds of people. This is why he so uncharacteristically used the words “understands” and “expects” when taking this oh so “nuanced and responsible” approach.
 
Of course, the problem is that understanding and expectation alone cannot solve the contradiction at the heart of MAGA ideology. Bullying allies into pledging investments does not automatically lead to more domestic job opportunities. Education, or the transfer of technologies and skills, should act as a bridge between the principles of attracting investments and increasing local job opportunities. Immigration goes hand-in-hand with that type of education, as skilled foreign workers need to be able to enter the US to work together with Americans as they impart their knowledge.
 
Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy and mastermind of Trump’s immigration policy, visited the ICE headquarters in Washington in May. He lambasted the agency, demanding that it arrest 3,000 people a day — essentially ordering it to triple arrest figures from earlier in the year. Instead of pinpointing targets for arrest, Miller ordered ICE to cast a wide net and raid work sites like factories to round up people in droves. ICE is aiming to expel 1 million people from the US in 2025.
 
Last week’s raid was carried out as part of such orders. The Guardian recently reported that at least one of the workers rounded up at the battery plant held a valid visa. Nevertheless, ICE decided to arrest him anyway. This is what happens when orders are given to round people up indiscriminately.
 
It is illegal to detain someone with a valid visa. South Koreans are not the only ones to be subjected to this outrage. In the detention center hosting the hundreds of Korean laborers detained after this raid, many people complained that their family and friends were “detained without any real reason.” Aaron, an individual the Hankyoreh met and spoke to outside of the detainment center in Georgia, said, “His immigration trial keeps getting pushed back, so my friend has been in this center for a year and a half. I honestly have no idea when this will all be over.”
 
The US has two options. It can either shut its borders and walk the path of self-isolation, or it can revolutionize its manufacturing sector by welcoming talent from all over the world with open arms. It’s one or the other. Embracing isolationism while only allowing a hyperspecific drip of immigration into the US is nothing more than a pipe dream. The US is already morphing into a nightmare for foreigners.
 
Vowing to arrest 3,000 immigrants a day while only allowing a trickle of people into the country to fulfill “expectations” that they train Americans is a type of cognitive dissonance only possible in the MAGA world. 

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