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A Korean Air charter flight carrying South Korean workers who had been detained by U.S. immigration authorities takes off from Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia on September 11. / Source: Yonhap

A total of 316 South Koreans released from U.S. detention facilities on September 11 boarded a Korean Air charter flight from Atlanta at 11:38 a.m. local time, about a week after their arrests at a Hyundai–LG battery plant construction site in Georgia. They are expected to arrive at Incheon International Airport around 3 p.m. on September 12.

The group traveled by bus for six hours from the ICE detention center in Folkston, Georgia, to Atlanta. Another bus carrying women released from a nearby facility also reached the airport earlier. Officials, including First Vice Foreign Minister Park Yoon-joo and LG Energy Solution CEO Kim Dong-myung, accompanied the flight back to Korea.

In total, 330 passengers boarded the flight — 316 Koreans, one Korean who opted to stay in the U.S., and 14 foreign nationals, including Chinese, Japanese, and Indonesian workers.

The Trump administration assured Seoul that those deported would face no penalties upon future reentry into the U.S., though some legal ambiguities remain regarding voluntary departures. Washington and Seoul have also begun talks on designing new visa categories for skilled workers at Korean investment projects in the U.S.

Hyundai Motor America CEO Jose Muñoz said the crackdown would delay the plant project by at least two to three months, adding that many of the specialized skills and equipment needed could not be sourced locally. Hyundai Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun told an auto industry forum the same day that both governments were “working closely together” and hoped to build “a better visa system.”