Korean workers detained in ICE raid to leave U.S. on charter flight at noon Thursday
Published: 11 Sep. 2025, 14:24
![Detainees are seen in a yard at the Folkston ICE Processing Center on Sept. 9 in Folkston, Georgia. [AFP/YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/09/11/6fbf8a1a-4cdd-42bd-ba93-5b8e923302a1.jpg)
Detainees are seen in a yard at the Folkston ICE Processing Center on Sept. 9 in Folkston, Georgia. [AFP/YONHAP]
A charter flight carrying more than 300 Koreans detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Georgia is scheduled to take off at noon on Thursday, bound for Korea.
According to Yonhap News Agency on Wednesday citing sources familiar with the matter, the workers will be transported by chartered buses from detention centers to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. that day. The Folkston detention facility is about 430 kilometers (267 miles) from Atlanta, a drive of roughly four and a half hours.
The detainees are expected to board a Korean Air Boeing 747-8i, which has 368 seats, and depart around noon. The round-trip charter is estimated to cost about 1 billion won ($719,000), which will be covered by LG Energy Solution.
The workers were arrested on Sept. 4 in an immigration raid at the construction site of LG Energy Solution and Hyundai Motor Group’s joint battery plant in Georgia and have since been held at nearby detention facilities. They were initially expected to be released on Wednesday to return voluntarily, but their release was suddenly delayed due to “circumstances on the U.S. side.”
Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun, currently in Washington to resolve the issue, met with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the White House the same day. Cho requested that the Koreans be allowed to return quickly without physical restraints and without facing penalties for re-entering the United States in the future. The U.S. side gave a positive response, according to the ministry.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY KIM JI-HYE [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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