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Visa Declined: The Battle Over Foreign Workers

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ABC News

News, Daily News, Politics

4.56.4K Ratings

🗓️ 29 December 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this special episode, ABC Senior White House Correspondent Selina Wang breaks down how an ICE raid on a battery plant in Georgia renewed a debate over foreign worker visas in the U.S. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello, hope you had a great weekend, and welcome to the week between Christmas and New

0:06.1

years, when lots of Americans are taking it easy, taking some time to reflect, and in that

0:10.8

spirit, we're going to do something a little bit different this week. We're going to take a

0:13.9

breath from the constant day-to-day headlines and check in on some of the stories that have

0:18.4

continued to evolve in the weeks and months since we

0:21.1

reported on them. Hundreds of workers detained at a massive auto plant in Georgia. What ICE is calling

0:28.4

its largest raid at a single site in its 22-year history. Back in September of this year,

0:34.0

we described what initially sounded like a new iteration of the Trump administration's

0:38.1

immigration rates, foreign workers being rounded up at a Hyundai car plant in Georgia and sent back to

0:43.8

their country of origin, in this case, South Korea. But it quickly became clear that this raid was

0:49.3

different. It was being treated differently by foreign governments. It was absolutely bewildering to industry leaders,

0:55.1

and it pitted Republicans directly against each other

0:58.3

as they argued what the job market in this country should look like.

1:02.9

So, we're going to spend today's episode with ABC Senior White House correspondent Selina Wang,

1:07.7

who covered the story for months and, in fact, continues to cover it now because it continues to iterate.

1:13.1

So, Selena, first off, thanks for being with us.

1:15.3

Can you just walk us through, I guess, that raid back in September set the scene for us.

1:19.6

What happened?

1:20.5

Yeah, so remember there were so many headlines in September because of this massive raid,

1:25.4

what federal officials called the largest single-site enforcement

1:28.4

operation in the history of Homeland Security investigations. This happened in southeastern Georgia

1:34.0

at a 3,000-acre Hyundai Energy Solutions factory. This was a multi-billion dollar project,

...

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