[Edaily Reporter NA EUN-KYUNG ] Approximately 300 South Korean workers who were arrested and detained last year at the construction site of a joint battery plant operated by HyundaiMotor Group (HyundaiMotor(005380)) andLG Energy Solution(373220) in Georgia, U.S., have launched a class-action lawsuit against the Donald Trump administration.

According to CNN on the 15th (local time), the Korean workers who were detained at the time began filing administrative claims seeking damages against U.S. federal agencies starting that day.

A Korean-American attorney in Georgia representing the workers stated that they plan to complete the filing of claims by the end of this year against the nine federal agencies involved in the raid, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Department of Justice. The specific amounts of compensation sought by each claimant have not been disclosed.

This administrative claim is a procedure under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). To seek damages from the U.S. government on the grounds of harm caused by the unlawful or wrongful acts of federal officials, a claimant must first file an administrative claim with the relevant agency. If the agency dismisses the claim or fails to make a decision within six months, the claimant may file a lawsuit in federal court. Therefore, this claim is a preliminary step for the Korean workers to initiate a full-scale damages lawsuit against the federal government.

On September 4 of last year, U.S. immigration authorities raided the battery plant construction site at HyundaiMotor’s Meta Plant in Ellerbel, Bryan County, Georgia, and arrested 475 workers. Of these, 317 were Korean nationals. The Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a division of the Department of Homeland Security, described the raid as the largest single-site raid in the agency’s history.

At the site, agents armed with firearms and wearing masks subdued the workers. Video released by ICE showing the arrested workers being led away in a line—handcuffed, with chains connecting their waists and ankles—sparked controversy over excessive enforcement and human rights violations.

The workers have maintained that, although they had lawful immigration status or were authorized to perform tasks such as equipment installation and inspection under short-term business visas (B-1) or the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), immigration authorities arrested them en masse without properly verifying their immigration status or the nature of their work. It was also reported that they raised concerns regarding unlawful arrests, racially motivated targeting, excessive use of force, and violations of due process.

In contrast, U.S. authorities stated that the workers arrested at the time had entered the country illegally or overstayed their visas, and were working on visas or visa-waiver status that did not permit employment. However, immigration attorneys refuted the authorities’ claims, arguing that some workers were legally present in the country for the installation and adjustment of factory equipment and technology transfer.

Internal ICE documents from that time also confirmed that a Korean worker holding a B-1/B-2 visa was found not to have violated the terms of his visa. However, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security acknowledged that the worker had performed unauthorized work and stated that he had chosen to depart voluntarily.

Immediately after the detentions, the South Korean government dispatched officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and then-Foreign Minister Cho Hyun to the United States to discuss the workers’ release. Subsequently, on the 11th of that same month, 316 of the detained South Koreans departed from Atlanta, Georgia, on a chartered flight and returned home the following day. The remaining individual, an applicant for permanent residency whose family resided in the United States, remained in the country at the time to undergo immigration court proceedings.