Hyundai CEO Says White House Apologized For ICE Raid At Georgia Plant
Posturing from the Oval Office quickly turned into groveling after its draconian stance on immigration directly jeopardized a foreign conglomerate's $26 billion investment in the United States. Hyundai CEO José Muñoz said on Wednesday that the White House called him and apologized for the September immigration enforcement raid at an Hyundai-LG battery plant in Georgia. The appalling multi-agency federal effort detained 317 employees, primarily from South Korea, in cramped 72-person cells with moldy bunk beds, a handful of communal toilets and no view of the outside.
Muñoz was speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore when he revealed that the apology phone call had taken place. He mentioned that Georgia Governor Brian Kemp also called him. The executive recalled the conversation with Kemp and paraphrased his words:
"I don't know what happened. This is not state jurisdiction. So apparently, somebody made a phone call and made it look like there were illegal immigrants. That's absolutely not the case. And in fact, President Trump didn't want those workers to get back to Korea."
Muñoz would go on to note that battery manufacturing requires specialized processes, technologies and personnel that aren't readily available in the United States, despite being a "very well developed country." The CEO then stated that the country's immigration system doesn't recognize that companies have to bring these specialized people in to establish operations and then leave.
The raid quickly escalated to an international incident as the South Korean government rushed to intervene and free the detainees regardless of their nationality. A few of the workers later turned out to be U.S. citizens. Attempting to take any positive from the debacle, Muñoz stated that it created a dialogue with Hyundai and the two national governments to find a permanent solution. However, not everyone involved is willing to just move on. Roughly 200 workers from the Georgia plant are planning to sue Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It's unclear whether lawsuits will be filed against the other agencies involved in the raid.
Pushing aside contemporary political rhetoric, the United States is the wealthiest country that has ever existed. The International Monetary Fund lists the U.S gross domestic product of $30.6 trillion, the highest in the world by a wide margin. It's a gaping $11.3 trillion chasm to the People's Republic of China in second place. Even when split across a massive population of over 340 million people, the U.S. ranks eighth in GDP per capita among a billionaires' row of tiny states: the famed tax haven of the Cayman Islands, the pro-business city-state of Singapore and the casino state of Macau.
Foreign companies and individuals continue to flock to the United States to sustain this country's prosperity despite the openly hostile environment. It would be a simpler process to hire a skilled American workforce, but domestic moneyed interests have steered government policy for decades to avoid paying their fair share in taxes and investing in the American people. If the U.S. is still the wealthiest nation, the federal budget shouldn't be the obstacle to becoming the most well-educated and the healthiest nation.
