Immigration raid at Hyundai EV complex near Savannah, GA

U.S. immigration authorities on Thursday carried out a large-scale enforcement operation at Hyundai Motor Group's electric vehicle complex near Savannah, Georgia, executing a search warrant at the construction site for an adjacent battery plant and prompting a pause in work there while assembly operations at the EV plant continued, officials said.

Federal officials said agents from Homeland Security Investigations and other agencies executed the warrant at the battery plant site on the sprawling 3,000-acre development west of Savannah. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement the action was part of an ongoing criminal investigation into allegations of unlawful employment practices and other serious federal crimes. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman confirmed agents were focused on the battery construction site but gave few other details.

Accounts differed on the number of people taken into custody. The Atlanta office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives posted that about 450 people alleged to be in the country unlawfully were detained during the operation. South Korean officials described the number of their nationals detained...