ICE raid will delay Hyundai's construction plans in Georgia, CEO says
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Hyundai Motor Co. CEO José Muñoz speaks at an event in Seoul. Photo: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images
An ICE raid on a Hyundai-linked battery plant in Georgia last week will delay construction plans by months, the CEO of Hyundai Motor Co. said Thursday.
Why it matters: Hyundai's now-$26 billion commitment to build in the U.S. was one of the signature early wins for President Trump, but that's all up in the air as the repercussions of the immigration raid take hold.
Catch up quick: ICE raided the plant Sept. 4, arresting hundreds of workers, many of them South Korean.
- The images of their countrymen in shackles caused broad outrage in South Korea, prompting the country's president to reportedly say Thursday that it could chill the U.S. ally's investment plans.
Yes, but: "Not for us," Hyundai Motor Co. president and CEO José Muñoz told Axios.
- "The U.S. is strategically important for the mid- to long-term, and our plans of investment continue, okay? But it's something that needs to be resolved to be able to go fast."
The big picture: The raid exposed one of the fundamental tensions of Trump administration policy: It wants foreign companies to invest heavily in American manufacturing, but it also wants jobs done by American workers.
- Officials have alleged none of the arrested employees had the proper visas for the work they were doing setting up the plant.
What they're saying: "Production at the battery plant will likely be delayed 2 to 3 months based on what happened as the technical experts installing and validating (the equipment) have left," Muñoz told reporters at a Detroit event earlier Thursday.
- A 3-month delay is "assuming some people will be able to come back and help, well, because the knowledge is not here," Muñoz later told Axios.
- Many of the workers were contractors employed by Hyundai's battery joint venture partner, LG Energy Solutions.
- "Almost all battery companies operating in the U.S. are Korean," he noted — companies including LG, Samsung and SK On.
- "Our company does a lot of things. We don't build batteries, right? So this is not our knowledge, and then they have it in in Korea. They specialize," he said, adding that battery production equipment also has to come from outside the U.S.
Of note: The construction delays will affect the raided battery plant, but not a nearby assembly plant for cars.
- Hyundai's Georgia campus, the largest economic development in the state's history, was intended to ultimately create nearly 40,000 direct and indirect jobs, the company said earlier this year.
The intrigue: Muñoz's comments came just after after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC that early 2026 would set records for U.S. construction employment.
What to watch: Whether U.S. officials help expedite the return of the workers needed to set up the plant.
- South Korean news agency Yonhap reported the U.S. government wanted the workers to stay, before hundreds eventually returned home on a charter flight.
- Lutnick told Mike Allen for the premiere of "The Axios Show" that Hyundai should have simply called him if they were having difficulty getting enough of the correct visas for their workers.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with new details throughout.
