South Korean president warns of investment hesitation due to visa issues

South Korea's president, Lee Jae Myung, recently highlighted concerns regarding the potential impact on South Korean investments in the United States due to the U.S. visa system for Korean workers. During a press conference marking his 100th day in office, he described the situation following a significant immigration raid in Georgia, which resulted in over 300 South Korean workers being detained. These workers were part of a battery manufacturing operation linked to Hyundai, and their arrests stirred significant confusion and concern among South Korean businesses operating in the U.S. The immigration raid, conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), raised alarm in South Korea, where the sight of their compatriots detained and shackled evoked feelings of betrayal in a longstanding bilateral friendship. Many in South Korea expressed outrage over the treatment of the workers, who were viewed as skilled labor necessary for setting up manufacturing sites and fulfilling technical needs within both South Korean companies and the U.S. industrial landscape. In his remarks, President Lee emphasized the critical need for a revised visa system that would allow skilled workers to remain in the U.S. while helping to establish significant industrial infrastructure. He underlined that the current immigration framework forces companies to rely on short-term visas, which inhibits their ability to employ the necessary workforce to build and install manufacturing facilities in the U.S., a demand that has been continuously unmet despite South Korea's pressing requests to address visa inadequacies. Lee Jae Myung urged U.S. authorities to normalize the visa process by either increasing the number of available visas or creating new visa categories specifically for South Korean skilled workers. He indicated that if these issues are not resolved, South Korean firms would likely reconsider their investment strategies in the U.S., thereby hinting at a potential cooling of foreign direct investment that has been a vital part of the economic partnership between the two nations.