Handcuffs as Leverage
The ICE sweep at Hyundai's $12.6 billion EV battery plant is about more than immigration; it is about tariffs, oil money, and authoritarian control
Once again, Kristi Noem’s ICE proves that its orders are not to pursue workers rapists, murderers, sex traffickers, or thieves, but to go after workers as part of a larger Trump agenda. If you thought that the roundup of immigrants was restricted to black and brown people, this is your reminder that white power has not problem making Asians expendable. Trump and his Project 2025 Christian Nationalist Administration have made no secret of their plans to build a white, wealthy, male-dominated authoritarian plutocracy. Indeed, Project 2025 has been developing the architecture for this transformation since at least 2023, before Trump even returned to office.
The seizure of nearly 500 South Koreans in Georgia is not only aligned with that goal, but also advances several other Trump political purposes at once. 1
A Show of Force
The site targeted was a $12.6 billion EV battery plant under construction in Ellabell, Georgia. The raid on Thursday, September 4, 2025, Codenamed Operation Low Voltage, was no ordinary enforcement action. ICE and Homeland Security Investigations sent in overwhelming force, joined by ATF, FBI, DEA, and Georgia State Patrol, detaining approximately 475 workers, most of them South Korean nationals.2 It is considered the largest single-site enforcement operation in Homeland Security Investigations’ history. 3
The optics were cinematic: federal agents in tactical gear, workers pulled off construction sites, and even reports of some detainees leaping into a sewage pond in a futile attempt to escape. Work on the battery plant was halted immediately. 4
None of those detained were Hyundai employees. They were subcontractors and contractors—people brought in to do the hard, dirty work of assembling America’s “green future.” Their alleged violations were visa overstays, misused visa waivers, or unauthorized employment. Not one detainee has been charged with violent crime. And yet they are being held in the ICE detention center in Folkston, Georgia, their futures uncertain as deportation proceedings loom. 5
Fear and Spectacle
The size of the raid was the point. Nearly 500 workers in handcuffs makes headlines. It sends a chilling message, not only to immigrant communities, but also to corporations daring to stake their future in clean energy or EV production. The message is clear: if federal agents can shut down a major South Korean multinational’s flagship U.S. project overnight, then no company or worker is beyond reach. The raid was designed to intimidate, not only immigrant labor, but also corporations investing in renewable energy and EV manufacturing. It was a demonstration of state power intended to spread fear well beyond the worksite. 6
For some in Trump’s base, the spectacle reaffirms his promise of harsh enforcement. Others are asking why the focus is on workers rather than the violent offenders he vowed to target. For Project 2025’s architects, it reinforces the authoritarian model they are building: one where mass roundups and the politics of fear become standard tools of governance.
The Energy Angle
The Hyundai raid cannot be separated from Trump’s promises to fossil fuel donors.
In April 2024, Donald Trump invited around 20 high-powered executives from Chevron, Exxon, Occidental Petroleum, Continental Resources, and other fossil-fuel giants to Mar-a-Lago, with billionaire Harold Hamm orchestrating the gathering. At this dinner - captured on video and widely circulated - Trump explicitly pitched a deal: raise $1 billion for his campaign, and he would quickly rollback regulatory and environmental policies, including opening federal lands to drilling, reversing liquified natural gas export moratoriums, and rescinding tailpipe emissions rules. “You’ll get it on the first day,” he told the assembled executives, according to attendees. 7
Meanwhile, oil billionaires like Harold Hamm, Kelcy Warren, Jeffery Hildebrand, and George Bishop poured at least $9.9 million into Trump-aligned campaigns with an additional $16 million from other like-minded donors. 8 They were betting on a second Trump term to deliver the industry’s wishlist: deregulation, expanded drilling, and the dismantling of clean-energy incentives.
They are getting their money’s worth. Since returning to power, Trump has cancelled offshore wind projects, revoked California’s Clean Air Act waiver, and gutted EV mandates. Each move rewarded the oil and gas executives who bankrolled his campaign. Raiding a cornerstone EV battery project in Georgia fits neatly into that pattern. Whether by design or by convenient alignment, it delivers another blow to clean energy while signaling loyalty to the fossil fuel industry. 9
The Geopolitical Game
There is also leverage to be had abroad. South Korea is one of America’s largest trading partners and a major investor in U.S. manufacturing. Hyundai and LG Energy Solution together pledged over $12 billion in Georgia. By detaining hundreds of South Korean nationals, Trump inserts immigration enforcement into the broader bargaining chip pile for tariff negotiations and trade disputes.
It is no coincidence that this spectacle unfolded just as talks with Seoul over tariffs and auto imports were intensifying. The raid weaponizes human beings as pawns in a geopolitical chess game. 10
The Project 2025 Template
Seen through the lens of Project 2025, the Hyundai raid checks multiple boxes:
Expanding the target pool: The arrests show that raids are not confined to Black and Latino communities, reinforcing the message that no immigrant group is beyond reach.
Fear as governance: Mass arrests demonstrate the power of the state and normalize authoritarian tactics.
Economic sabotage of alternatives: Clean energy ventures are disrupted, while fossil fuel backers are protected.
White plutocracy secured: Wealthy executives and donors remain untouched, while vulnerable workers—whether Latino poultry plant employees or Korean engineers—bear the brunt of state power.
This is the essence of the authoritarian plutocracy Project 2025 envisions. The raid was not a misstep; it was a proof of concept.
Conclusion
The Hyundai raid is not just about immigration enforcement. It is about spectacle, intimidation, donor appeasement, and geopolitical leverage. It is about replacing democracy with an authoritarian model where the state flexes power against the vulnerable while shielding the powerful. It is, in short, Project 2025 in action.
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