{"id":13206,"date":"2025-09-13T08:20:39","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T08:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/trumps-investment-push-runs-into-his-immigration-crackdown\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T08:20:39","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T08:20:39","slug":"trumps-investment-push-runs-into-his-immigration-crackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/trumps-investment-push-runs-into-his-immigration-crackdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump&#8217;s investment push runs into his immigration crackdown"},"content":{"rendered":"<div xmlns:xlink=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\">\n<p>WASHINGTON (AP) &mdash; President Donald Trump&rsquo;s push to revitalize American manufacturing by <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-taxes-investment-section-899-f343d4418707335d8db844c9242751a9\">luring foreign investment into the U.S.<\/a><\/span>  has run smack into one of his other priorities: cracking down on illegal immigration.<\/p>\n<p>Hardly a week after immigration authorities <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/us-south-korea-ice-raid-georgia-hyundai-9394482c195664d7cc3db67ae998ac05\">raided a sprawling Hyundai battery plant<\/a><\/span>  in Georgia, detained more than 300 South Korean workers and showed video of some of them shackled in chains, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung warned that the country&rsquo;s <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/south-korea-visa-us-trump-investments-immigration-raid-25f04d539eb2556f3ff2fad49db0f74e\">other companies may be reluctant<\/a><\/span>  to take up Trump&rsquo;s invitation to pour money into the United States.<\/p>\n<div data-align-center>                    <bsp-figure>    <\/p>\n<figure data-openoverlay>                        <a id=\"image-b00000\"><\/a>                             <picture data-crop=\"imgEn-medium-nocrop\"><source media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" type=\"image\/webp\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\"><source media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\"><source media=\"(min-width: 600px)\" type=\"image\/webp\" width=\"767\" height=\"511\"><source media=\"(min-width: 600px)\" width=\"767\" height=\"511\"><source type=\"image\/webp\" width=\"599\" height=\"399\"><source width=\"599\" height=\"399\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A spotted lanternfly flies past President Donald Trump as he boards Air Force One, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., to travel to New York. (AP Photo\/Alex Brandon)\" width=\"599\" height=\"399\" src=\"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/6a2a958\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/4182x2788+0+0\/resize\/599x399!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2F90%2F4f%2F75d5011bc6424ca056ca8f93bd46%2F8c4e4761709248e3a5e247e1e0feeff2\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<div><bsp-read-more data-more-button-text=\"Read More\" data-less-button-text=\"Read Less\" data-expand=\"ReadMore-expand\" data-limit=\"110\" data-main-class=\"ReadMore\"><figcaption>\n<p>A spotted lanternfly flies past President Donald Trump as he boards Air Force One, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., to travel to New York. (AP Photo\/Alex Brandon)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/bsp-read-more><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>        <template data-bsp-figure-overlay-template>                                <\/p>\n<div data-slidenumber=\"0\" data-slidescount=\"1\">                        <bsp-carousel-read-more data-show-less data-expand=\"ReadMore-expand\" data-main-class=\"ReadMore\" data-more-id data-less-id>                            <\/p>\n<p>A spotted lanternfly flies past President Donald Trump as he boards Air Force One, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., to travel to New York. (AP Photo\/Alex Brandon)<\/p>\n<p>                        <\/bsp-carousel-read-more>                    <\/div>\n<p>    <\/template>    <\/bsp-figure>                <\/div>\n<p>The detained South Koreans were released Thursday and most were <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/south-korea-hyundai-georgia-immigration-raid-dd97210ffb6126bdf763228dc03918e0\">flown home<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>If the U.S. can&rsquo;t promptly issue visas to the technicians and other <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/immigration-raid-south-korea-going-home-f93505321ddf511d5ae6f0949f75726d\">skilled workers needed to launch plants<\/a><\/span>then &ldquo;establishing a local factory in the United States will either come with severe disadvantages or become very difficult for our companies,&rdquo; Lee said Thursday. &ldquo;They will wonder whether they should even do it.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/georgia-immigration-raid-hyundai-south-korea-40e9e6ac0427389491532464098c1acb\">raid and subsequent diplomatic crisis<\/a><\/span>  show how the Trump administration&rsquo;s mass deportation goals are running up against its efforts to bring in money from abroad to drive the U.S. economy and create more jobs. Moves like <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-immigration-ice-raids-undocumented-workers-aa451dc90dda76004fdc5636b21bde97\">workplace immigration enforcement<\/a><\/span>  and <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-visas-deportations-068ad6cd5724e7248577f17592327ca4\">visa restrictions<\/a><\/span>  could risk alienating allies that are pledging to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the U.S. to <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-japan-trade-tariffs-550-billion-investment-fund-79c27b3db1c22c513bcf487c00a5a627\">avoid high tariffs<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n<div data-align-center>                    <bsp-figure>    <\/p>\n<figure data-openoverlay>                        <a id=\"image-670000\"><\/a>                             <picture data-crop=\"imgEn-medium-nocrop\"><source media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" type=\"image\/webp\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\"><source media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\"><source media=\"(min-width: 600px)\" type=\"image\/webp\" width=\"767\" height=\"511\"><source media=\"(min-width: 600px)\" width=\"767\" height=\"511\"><source type=\"image\/webp\" width=\"599\" height=\"399\"><source width=\"599\" height=\"399\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"South Korean President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a news conference to mark 100 days in office at the Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, Sept, 11, 2025. (Kim Hong-Ji\/Pool Photo via AP)\" width=\"599\" height=\"399\" src=\"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/786a9a0\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/6000x4000+0+0\/resize\/599x399!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2F28%2Ffe%2F2f39428627c78cdac92c96fb4c52%2Fd6947e4040c647caafb287a1d3d2a063\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<div><bsp-read-more data-more-button-text=\"Read More\" data-less-button-text=\"Read Less\" data-expand=\"ReadMore-expand\" data-limit=\"110\" data-main-class=\"ReadMore\"><figcaption>\n<p>South Korean President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a news conference to mark 100 days in office at the Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, Sept, 11, 2025. (Kim Hong-Ji\/Pool Photo via AP)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/bsp-read-more><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>        <template data-bsp-figure-overlay-template>                                <\/p>\n<div data-slidenumber=\"0\" data-slidescount=\"1\">                        <bsp-carousel-read-more data-show-less data-expand=\"ReadMore-expand\" data-main-class=\"ReadMore\" data-more-id data-less-id>                            <\/p>\n<p>South Korean President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a news conference to mark 100 days in office at the Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, Sept, 11, 2025. (Kim Hong-Ji\/Pool Photo via AP)<\/p>\n<p>                        <\/bsp-carousel-read-more>                    <\/div>\n<p>    <\/template>    <\/bsp-figure>                <\/div>\n<h2>South Korea is already a big investor in the US<\/h2>\n<p>Trump&rsquo;s economic agenda is built around using <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/asia-tariffs-trump-china-trade-78d11d9d8ab4eb66898e12fdbd5aa9b4\">hefty tariffs on imports<\/a><\/span>including a 15% levy on South Korean products, as a cudgel to force manufacturing to return to the U.S. He&rsquo;s repeatedly said foreign companies can escape his tariffs if they produce in America. South Korea, already a top investor, pledged to invest $350 billion in the U.S. when the <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/donald-trump-south-korea-trade-lee-jae-myung-f80efa062dcc1b2430bbe3f12d6d1b6e\">two sides announced a trade deal<\/a><\/span>  in July.<\/p>\n<p>It made more investments in new construction, such as factories, on previously undeveloped land than any other country in 2022. Last year, it ranked 12th in the world with $93 billion in total American investment &mdash; including acquisitions of existing companies, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.<\/p>\n<p>But the <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/south-korea-immigration-raid-georgia-hyundai-trump-69c55c9b9e635d0d5413f972d634a9a1\">dramatic roundup of South Koreans<\/a><\/span>  and others working to set up the battery plant threatens to put a chill on the investment push. Indeed, Trump seems to be trying to undo the damage. <\/p>\n<p>While demanding that foreign investors &ldquo;LEGALLY bring your very smart people,&rdquo; Trump also promised to &ldquo;make it quickly and legally possible for you to do so.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;President Trump will continue delivering on his promise to make the United States the best place in the world to do business, while also enforcing federal immigration laws,&rdquo; White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>For now, the South Koreans are furious and immigration experts are puzzled. It&rsquo;s been common practice for decades for foreign companies &mdash; such as the Japanese and German carmakers that have built factories in the American Midwest and South &mdash; to send technical specialists from their home countries to help open plants in the United States. Most of them train U.S. workers, then go home.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Japanese managers, senior engineers, other technical experts had to come to the United States to set this stuff up,&rdquo; said Lee Branstetter, a professor of economics and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University who&rsquo;s studied Japanese auto plants in the U.S. <\/p>\n<p>American companies do the same thing, sending U.S. workers overseas temporarily to get operations started.<\/p>\n<div data-align-center>                    <bsp-figure>    <\/p>\n<figure data-openoverlay>                        <a id=\"image-6b0000\"><\/a>                             <picture data-crop=\"imgEn-medium-nocrop\"><source media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" type=\"image\/webp\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\"><source media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\"><source media=\"(min-width: 600px)\" type=\"image\/webp\" width=\"767\" height=\"511\"><source media=\"(min-width: 600px)\" width=\"767\" height=\"511\"><source type=\"image\/webp\" width=\"599\" height=\"399\"><source width=\"599\" height=\"399\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"This image from video provided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via DVIDS shows manufacturing plant employees waiting to have their legs shackled at the Hyundai Motor Group&rsquo;s electric vehicle plant, Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025, in Ellabell, Ga. (Corey Bullard\/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via AP)\" width=\"599\" height=\"399\" src=\"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/b541413\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/2499x1666+0+0\/resize\/599x399!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2F33%2F65%2F43f7bbd34bbc5b44dd0f7ec59c1d%2F481e2a5389c64b7cb48e66d49a3f4622\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<div><bsp-read-more data-more-button-text=\"Read More\" data-less-button-text=\"Read Less\" data-expand=\"ReadMore-expand\" data-limit=\"110\" data-main-class=\"ReadMore\"><figcaption>\n<p>This image from video provided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via DVIDS shows manufacturing plant employees waiting to have their legs shackled at the Hyundai Motor Group&rsquo;s electric vehicle plant, Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025, in Ellabell, Ga. (Corey Bullard\/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via AP)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/bsp-read-more><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>        <template data-bsp-figure-overlay-template>                                <\/p>\n<div data-slidenumber=\"0\" data-slidescount=\"1\">                        <bsp-carousel-read-more data-show-less data-expand=\"ReadMore-expand\" data-main-class=\"ReadMore\" data-more-id data-less-id>                            <\/p>\n<p>This image from video provided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via DVIDS shows manufacturing plant employees waiting to have their legs shackled at the Hyundai Motor Group&rsquo;s electric vehicle plant, Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025, in Ellabell, Ga. (Corey Bullard\/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via AP)<\/p>\n<p>                        <\/bsp-carousel-read-more>                    <\/div>\n<p>    <\/template>    <\/bsp-figure>                <\/div>\n<h2>Some experts call it a baffling, &lsquo;performative&rsquo; raid <\/h2>\n<p>U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched the roundup last week at a manufacturing site that state officials have touted as Georgia&rsquo;s largest economic development project.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s really baffling to me why this raid would have occurred,&rdquo; said Ben Armstrong, executive director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology&rsquo;s Industrial Performance Center. &ldquo;The existence of these workers shouldn&rsquo;t have been a surprise.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>U.S. immigration officials could have audited the workers&rsquo; documents without the drama, retired immigration lawyer Dan Kowalski said, adding that &ldquo;raiding and arresting and putting them in chains and shackles is 100% performative.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>It had to do with &ldquo;wanting to look tough &mdash; arresting as many foreigners as possible for the photo-op,&rdquo; said Kowalski, who is now a writer and editor.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. work visa categories make it a challenge to bring in foreign workers quickly and easily, said Kevin Miner, an immigration lawyer in Atlanta.<\/p>\n<p>Some run on a highly competitive lottery system, are for seasonal workers and have a cap, or are restricted to managers and executives. Other short-term visas have strict limits on employment.<\/p>\n<p>After meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio this week in Washington, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said they agreed to set up a joint working group for discussions on creating a new visa category to make it easier for South Korean companies to send their staff to work in the United States. <\/p>\n<p>Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau also plans to visit Seoul this weekend.<\/p>\n<h2>Calls for fixes to the US visa system <\/h2>\n<p>Hyundai&rsquo;s &ldquo;desire to get this thing up and running as quickly as possible ran head-on into the often time-consuming processes that the U.S. government requires in order to issue business visas,&rdquo; said Branstetter of Carnegie Mellon.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. authorities say those detained were &ldquo;unlawfully working&rdquo; at the plant. Charles Kuck, a lawyer representing several of the South Koreans who were detained, said the &ldquo;vast majority&rdquo; of the workers from South Korea were <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/south-korea-us-georgia-raid-hyundai-24d990562f5ac20e7d3e983a77a4f7ff\">doing work authorized under a visa program<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Julia Gelatt, associate director of the U.S. immigration policy program at the Migration Policy Institute, said work visas &mdash; like nearly all other aspects of the U.S. immigration system &mdash; need reform.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Our visa system does not envision this k ind of scenario,&rdquo; Gelatt said, of bringing in skilled foreign workers needed for the initial setup of factories. The U.S. has a few country-specific visa categories that make it easier to bring in certain foreign workers, like those from Mexico, Australia or Singapore.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The goal,&rdquo; said MIT&rsquo;s Armstrong, &ldquo;should be to make foreign direct investment as streamlined as possible.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/south-korea-trump-immigration-raid-foreign-investment-ddfbe7d34ffedf46a25fa648c96a0000\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON (AP) &mdash; President Donald Trump&rsquo;s push to revitalize American manufacturing by luring foreign investment into the U.S. has run smack into one of his other priorities: cracking down on illegal immigration. Hardly a week after immigration authorities raided a sprawling Hyundai battery plant in Georgia, detained more than 300 South Korean workers and showed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}