ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Gov. Brian Kemp said an immigration raid earlier this month at the state’s sprawling Hyundai battery plant near Savannah should be a catalyst for a retooling of the nation’s visa system.

The raid on Sept. 4 saw 475 people detained by Homeland Security forces in what the agency called the largest workplace operation in its history. Many of those detainees were South Korean nationals in the country, their lawyers say, to help install parts of the factory that American workers don’t have the training to do.

Days after the raid, many were on a plane to return to South Korea after days of detainment and tense negotiations between the U.S. and South Korean governments.

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“That’s not a problem that was just for Hyundai, a lot of companies across the country have dealt with that,” said Kemp on Tuesday. “I think there’s a lot of confusion about what really happened down there.”

Kemp, speaking personally for the first time on the raid and not just through statements, made the comments at the soon-to-be site of the new Rivian electric vehicle plant. The site, which was announced in 2021 but faced financial and regulatory setbacks, plans to roll cars off its assembly line by 2028. It is the state’s second largest economic development project only to the Hyundai plant, Kemp said Tuesday.

The governor seemed unworried that the questionable detainments of South Korean workers would chill the desires of other foreign companies to invest in Georgia. Indeed, Kemp has noted that foreign investment is a priority of his and makes international trips annually to court companies looking for a home in Georgia. The state has also provided generous tax benefits to companies outside of U.S. borders.

“I’m not going to be naïve to the fact that they didn’t pay attention to what happened last week, but I will tell you, we’ve had good conversations with companies that are here. We’ve had good conversations with companies that are unnamed that are looking to do business here,” said Kemp. “They understand what is going on on the ground. They also understand the visa issue. So at the end of the day, I don’t think that’s going to affect us.”

President Donald Trump had expressed the very same sentiment earlier in the week, saying he didn’t want to confusing raid at Hyundai’s plant to “frighten off” foreign investors.

“I want (foreign companies) to bring their people of expertise for a period of time to teach and train our people how to make these very unique and complex products,” said a post by Trump to his social media site Truth Social. “If we didn’t do this, all of that massive investment will never come in the first place.”

It was also a sentiment echoed by Chris Clark, the president and CEO of Georgia’s Chamber of Commerce.

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“What we’ve heard consistently is that we need to reform the visa program in America, whether it’s for farm workers, whether it’s for our workers that are coming here to help build a Korean plant of a Japanese plant of a German plant,” said Clark at the Rivian event. “These are temporary workers who come here, they train up Americans, they bring unique expertise and knowledge to this state and we need a visa system that allows them to do their jobs. ”Because long term, Georgia workers benefit from that.”

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