Over 300 South Korean workers flew home on Thursday after a week in immigration detention following a factory raid near Savannah, Georgia, last week. The incident has jeopardized America's relationship with one of its closest allies and could chill many of President Donald Trump's domestic manufacturing goals.
The group, which included 316 South Korean nationals, 10 Chinese nationals, three Japanese nationals, and one Indonesian, boarded a chartered Korean Air flight and will arrive in South Korea late Friday afternoon. The flight, originally scheduled to leave on Wednesday, was delayed by Trump, who wanted to discuss with Korean officials whether the workers should stay in the U.S. to complete the electric vehicle battery plant at which they were detained. South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun thought it best for the workers to return home, due to their shock and exhaustion, and consider reentry at a later date, a South Korean official told NBC News.
Cho met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday to secure the release of workers and negotiate their voluntary departures, rather than deportations, which would block their ability to reenter the U.S. for up to 10 years. During his visit, Cho proposed the creation of a new visa for South Korean workers. The foreign minister also objected to U.S. officials transporting the workers from the immigration detention center to Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in handcuffs, saying they weren't criminals.
