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The Journal.

The Hyundai Plant Raided By Immigration Authorities

The Journal.

The Wall Street Journal

Daily News, Business News, News

4.25.3K Ratings

🗓️ 8 September 2025

⏱️ 16 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

At a Hyundai electric vehicle factory complex in Georgia, agents from the Department of Homeland Security detained about 475 people, including hundreds of South Korean nationals. It was the biggest single site raid in the history of the department. WSJ’s Sharon Terlep went to the factory complex and explains how two of Trump’s key policies—cracking down on illegal immigration and rebuilding U.S. manufacturing—have unexpectedly collided. Jessica Mendoza hosts. Further Listening:  - Inside the ICE Hiring Blitz - "I'm Thinking I'm 100% Legal." Then ICE Raided His Company. Sign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

In Georgia's countryside, about a half-hour drive from Savannah, is a 3,000-acre facility that manufactures Hyundai cars.

0:13.5

An auto factory, by any measure, is a very big place, and I would say this facility dwarfs even a very big auto plant because it's almost like a city within a city.

0:23.3

There's many buildings.

0:25.1

You can drive around it.

0:27.2

It's a sprawling complex.

0:29.4

Last week, that Georgia complex was targeted by the Department of Homeland Security.

0:35.8

DHS agents lining up workers at a Hyundai plan under construction near Savannah, Georgia.

0:41.2

Thursday's raid was carried out by multiple state and federal law enforcement agencies,

0:45.2

including ICE, the FBI, and the Georgia State Patrol.

0:48.7

Federal agents arrested nearly 500 people during an immigration raid in Georgia earlier this week.

0:55.1

The sweep was the largest single-site workplace rate in the U.S.,

0:59.3

and it highlighted a clash between two of the Trump administration's priorities,

1:04.6

bringing manufacturing back to the U.S. and cracking down on illegal immigration.

1:11.9

Our colleague Sharon Turlop covers the auto industry.

1:15.2

Foreign-based automakers that sell vehicles in the U.S. since the Trump administration have come

1:19.5

and have taken great strides to say, you know, we employ Americans.

1:24.3

We're, you know, Americans build our cars. We sell them to Americans and everybody's

1:29.2

watching, not just auto companies, but, you know, there's been, you know, a lot of companies,

1:33.7

a lot of non-U.S.-based companies expanding manufacturing here. And so certainly they're watching this.

1:39.1

Now, some companies manufacturing in the U.S. are worried. Are more rates coming?

1:45.4

And what would that mean for business?

1:52.3

Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power.

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