South Korean President Lee Jae-myung condemned on Thursday the heavy-handed immigration raid that saw hundreds of his country’s workers detained at a Hyundai and LG battery plant in Georgia, stressing that while they are set to be released and repatriated within hours, the incident “raises doubts” over future South Korean investments in the United States.

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“They are scheduled to be released from the detention center at 3:00 p.m. Seoul time (06:00 GMT) today,” Lee said at a press conference marking his first 100 days in office, emphasizing that these were employees working on a strategic investment project for both Seoul and Washington.

Lee clarified that the workers were never intended for long-term employment in the U.S., but had traveled temporarily to install essential machinery before promptly returning to South Korea.

The president denounced the U.S. immigration authorities’ raid on a facility central to bilateral cooperation in the electric vehicle sector as “deeply unsettling.”

“South Korean companies are now questioning whether it is worth investing in the U.S. after such an unnecessary and damaging raid,” he warned.

Lee’s criticism followed a high-level meeting in Washington between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun, where the two discussed strengthening U.S. manufacturing through South Korean investment in strategic industries such as shipbuilding.

According to Seoul’s Foreign Ministry, Cho expressed outrage that the arrests—targeting workers whose role was to transfer technology and expertise to bolster the U.S. manufacturing revival championed by the Trump administration—were made public, causing shock and resentment in South Korea.

Cho further insisted that since these workers are not criminals, they must be allowed to depart the U.S. swiftly, without measures like handcuffs.

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