Pay attention. This one is real. Helicopters. Drones in the air. Federal agents on the ground. Rifles. Shackles. The location: a Hyundai-LG Energy battery plant in Bryan County, Georgia, under construction.
The number arrested: four hundred and seventy-five. The number that turned out to be South Korean nationals on legal visas: north of three hundred. The country whose nationals were just shackled at an American plant being built by one of our biggest manufacturing investors: South Korea. South Korea.
Buddy. Buddy. The South Korean foreign ministry filed a formal protest by sundown. Their president called it unacceptable. They sent a chartered Korean Air jet to fly the workers home. Three hundred plus people, in seats, going back across the Pacific, because we shackled them. The reporting from the workers afterward was that ICE agents were making rocket man jokes during the arrests. Rocket man jokes. Out loud. With the cuffs on.
I have run a casino floor. I will tell you something. When you pull a bust on the floor, you do it quietly, you do it correctly, and you make damn sure you didn’t just bust the whole table of high rollers by mistake. You especially make sure when the high rollers are guests of the house who just bought into the room.
This was the high rollers. South Korea is the country we just announced a 350 billion dollar investment package with. South Korea is the country building the EV plant in Georgia that the same President took credit for at a ribbon cutting. South Korea is the country we want more factories from. The same week we shackled three hundred of their workers in front of camera drones.
Two weeks later the same President pivoted and said of course foreign experts should be welcome. The plane had landed in Seoul by then. The shackles came off in Atlanta.
I’m arguing with the television. The television is showing the helicopter footage on a loop.
The breakdown.
- Factual basis The raid is documented. The arrest count came from ICE.13/25
- Self-awareness South Korea had been touted as an ally and investor.4/20
- Staff containment ICE moved without coordination with State.7/20
- Recovery attempt The President said two weeks later that 'foreign experts' are welcome.6/15
- Public spectacle South Korea filed a formal protest. The detainees were chartered home.14/20
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