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Kim Jeong-kwan, Korea’s minister of trade, industry and energy (left), shakes hands with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick at the Commerce Department in Washington, D.C., on July 24. Ye Han-koo, Korea’s trade minister, stands center. / Courtesy of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy

Howard Lutnick, the U.S. secretary of commerce, said on September 11 that Korean companies should have ensured their workers obtained the appropriate visas, amid the mass detention of Koreans in an immigration sweep.

Speaking in an Axios interview released on YouTube, he began, “We like that Hyundai is building a factory in the United States. That’s a good thing.”

“But what they did was bring people in on tourist visas and put them to work in the plant,” he said. “Please get a work visa.”

He added, “Hyundai is a sufficiently mature global company with the capacity to make sure its workers get the right visas, but it didn’t do that,” calling it “wrong not to obtain the proper visas.”

However, the UK’s Guardian, citing an ICE document it obtained, reported that at least one detainee held a valid B1/B2 visa and that immigration agents were aware of it.

Lutnick said, “If there are people who entered with the wrong visas, ICE needs to correct that,” reiterating, “Please get the proper visa.”

“If you run into trouble getting visas, call me. I’ll call Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, and we’ll help,” he said. “But you can’t do it the wrong way.”

“President Donald Trump expects you to do things the right way,” he added. “You can’t skirt the rules anymore. That era is over.”

On September 4, U.S. immigration authorities conducted a raid at the Hyundai Motor Group–LG Energy Solution joint battery plant construction site in Ellabell, Georgia, detaining 317 Koreans.

Except for one person who chose to remain, 316 Koreans and 14 foreign nationals were released after about a week in detention and departed from Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport at 11:38 a.m. on September 11 to return home.