- Safiu Kehinde
The United States’ President, Donald Trump, has on Sunday charged foreign companies to hire and train American workers and respect immigration laws, following raid on Hyundai car battery plant in Ellabell, Georgia.
Hyundai had last week Thursday made headlines with the raid on its facility by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) team.
According to Reuters, about 475 workers were arrested by the U.S Federal agents at the plant.
With 300 out of the arrested workers confirmed to be South Koreans, the Asian country’s government has reportedly made move to pick up its nationals from the U.S detention.
The South Korean government expressed regret about the arrests and the release of the footage showing the operation involving armored vehicles detaining the workers who were shackled and taken in.
Reacting to the development in a post on Truth Social, Trump urged foreign companies to respect the nation’s immigration laws while charging them to hire and also train American workers.
“Following the Immigration Enforcement Operation on the Hyundai Battery Plant in Georgia, I am hereby calling on all Foreign Companies investing in the United States to please respect our Nation’s Immigration Laws,
“Your investments are welcome, and we encourage you to LEGALLY bring your very smart people, with great technical talent, to build World Class products, and we will make it quickly and legally possible for you to do so. What we ask in return is that you hire and train American Workers.” He wrote.
Trump reportedly made the post shortly after telling reporters he would look at what happened but that the incident had not harmed his relationship with South Korea.
He also floated the idea that he would look at the possibility of some foreign manufacturing experts being allowed into the country to help train American workers.