South Korea Accuses the Trump Administration of Abusing the Human Rights of its Workers Detained by ICE
Donald Trump’s lawless mass deportation campaign is turning America into the kind of “Third World” country foreigners from “First World” nations fear to visit. That’s the upshot of an ICE raid in Georgia that shackled and mistreated hundreds of South Korean workers here on temporary visas.
The Washington Post reports on South Korea’s reaction:
The South Korean government said it will look into whether human rights violations were committed against the 317 South Koreans who were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Georgia earlier this month. …
The move appears aimed at soothing an outraged South Korean public, analysts said, after ICE agents detained South Korean workers with shackles and chains on Sept. 4 while they were trying to build a joint Hyundai Motor Group-LG Energy Solution battery plant in Ellabell, Georgia. …
Nearly all of the Korean workers who were detained by ICE have since returned to their home country voluntarily, with some telling local media that they faced poor conditions at detention centers such as having to use and eat near open toilets. Others have said they felt they were being treated like violent criminals. …
Some South Koreans have pointed out that the U.S. lacks a viable visa framework that allows skilled South Korean workers to promptly set up high-tech plants such as the one in Georgia. Companies have also faced challenges navigating the U.S. visa process given the cap on specialized work visas, such as the H-1B, which has in turn led businesses to rely on other short-term visas to send skilled workers to the U.S.
The South Korean newspapers are filled with outraged stories about the inhumane conditions in ICE detention, and many of the detained workers vow never to return. But these are the same conditions suffered by all immigrants who are pulled into the constitutional void America has built around immigration enforcement.
The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.
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