Back in September, stormtroopers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained 475 workers at a Hyundai and LG battery plant in Georgia. Most of the detained workers hailed from South Korea — a full 317 of the 475 — which caused a major international incident and led South Korean companies to halt investment nearby. The South Korean workers were eventually rescued, as their nation's government chartered a flight to get them out of the horrid conditions in which they were detained, but it seems they're not done with ICE yet. Now, 200 of the detained workers will sue the agency.
The Korea Times reported yesterday that roughly 200 workers from the Hyundai-LG plant plan to sue ICE. Many of the detained workers were in the United States legally, having been granted visas, yet that didn't stop ICE from locking them in cramped, unsanitary rooms of up to 80 people. A lawsuit won't be able to undo the detainment, but it might grant the South Korean workers a bit of justice — or at least pay some therapy bills.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Of course, the Hyundai raid wasn't solely an ICE action. ICE itself says that "The coordinated action brought together the expertise of Enforcement and Removal Operations, Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, FBI, DEA, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Field Operations, U.S. Border Patrol, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, IRS and the Georgia State Patrol." None of the other agencies have yet been referenced in regard to the suit, but it's possible they could still come up in a final filing.
This suit could be a first chance for the United States to save some face and begin to mend relationships with our once-close allies in South Korea. Admitting wrongdoing on the behalf of individual agents, and penalizing them accordingly, would likely go a long way towards rebuilding some of those bridges. But, of course, that's unlikely in the American court system. Instead, this case may well just come down to qualified immunity — that get-out-of-jail-free card issued to every American brownshirt upon academy graduation.
