the plant was still under construction, I bet they use a lot of contractors, and those contractors had workers who were undocumented, just like most construction contractors do.
but, there were a lot of South Korean nationals in the raid. Those folks didn’t come over to pour concrete. I bet there were a bunch of engineers and middle managers over from South Korea to train up staff. Those Korean nationals didn’t have work authorization, but didn’t need it because they were employees of the South Korean part of the business. ICE doesn’t care, though. They took them all.
Now, the Administration knows that they can raid just about any new construction and find people without work authorization. They targeted this particular one because it is in Georgia and Georgia didn’t “find enough votes” for Trump in 2020. But it will backfire, bigly, because not only will tourism continue to drop but international businesses with a presence in the US will stop sending their people here in business, for any reason. The Administration just added the costs of getting foreign nationals out of ICE detention to the cost of doing business in the US.
Sounds like the majority of people picked up were in fact Korean citizens working under false pretenses. They used b1 visas and ESTA (non-visa travel authorization) meant for things like personal travel or international meetings, but not productive work like constructing a new facility.
The fact that they were Korean insinuates that they weren’t doing run-of-the-mill construction tasks because that could be handled by local firms (who would probably be hiring local Latino workers): they were probably there for much more technical work.
Hyundai would have known this, and would have been intentionally breaking this law. This sounds to me a lot more like a big company actually getting consequences than what ice has been doing raiding small businesses and home depot parking lots.
were in fact Korean citizens working under false pretenses. They used b1 visas and ESTA (non-visa travel authorization) meant for things like personal travel or international meetings, but not productive work like constructing a new facility.
Do you happen to know for certain that b1 visas and ESTA does not cover “productive work like constructing a new facility”? Because I think you are wrong. (I am not an immigration lawyer, but I suspect you are not either).
I have worked for international companies, and got sent over for “productive work” in visa waiver countries, and nobody told me that I needed a visa for any of that. The main focus of immigration law is on making sure people are authorized to take a job in the US. If someone is employed outside the US and comes to the US on behalf of their employer, and not paid for their services by any US entity, then it doesn’t matter what they do, as long as they leave when they are supposed to.
And, in fact, with a casual Google search, I found that a B1 visa does not in fact prohibit those activities: https://www.boundless.com/immigration-resources/b-1-b-2-visitor-visa-explained. It explicitly allows them, for a short duration (but longer than the ETSA waiver would). That link also explicitly says Canadians do not need the B1 visa for short activities, because it is covered under the visa waivers. My guess is it would work the same for any country eligible for the ESTA.
In spite of all this, ICE detained them anyway, because rules don’t apply to them. They get to do whatever the hell they want, because the President hates foreigners. It’s that simple.
Attend a scientific, educational, professional, or business convention or conference
Settle an estate
Negotiate a contract
Not permitted include:
Study
Employment
Paid performances, or any professional performance before a paying audience
Arrival as a crewmember on a ship or aircraft
Work as foreign press, in radio, film, print journalism, or other information media
Permanent residence in the United States
Also on that official site, it says the permitted activities for visa-free (ESTA) are the same as B visas.
If someone is employed outside the US and comes to the US on behalf of their employer, and not paid for their services by any US entity, then it doesn’t matter what they do, as long as they leave when they are supposed to.
The US government actually doesn’t care who is paying for the work, what matters is if the work is taking place within the US, it requires a proper visa (or esta).
No, I think it goes a bit deeper than that.
the plant was still under construction, I bet they use a lot of contractors, and those contractors had workers who were undocumented, just like most construction contractors do.
but, there were a lot of South Korean nationals in the raid. Those folks didn’t come over to pour concrete. I bet there were a bunch of engineers and middle managers over from South Korea to train up staff. Those Korean nationals didn’t have work authorization, but didn’t need it because they were employees of the South Korean part of the business. ICE doesn’t care, though. They took them all.
Now, the Administration knows that they can raid just about any new construction and find people without work authorization. They targeted this particular one because it is in Georgia and Georgia didn’t “find enough votes” for Trump in 2020. But it will backfire, bigly, because not only will tourism continue to drop but international businesses with a presence in the US will stop sending their people here in business, for any reason. The Administration just added the costs of getting foreign nationals out of ICE detention to the cost of doing business in the US.
I auto-translated the Korean article on this because it has more detail.
https://n.news.naver.com/article/015/0005180971?sid=101
Sounds like the majority of people picked up were in fact Korean citizens working under false pretenses. They used b1 visas and ESTA (non-visa travel authorization) meant for things like personal travel or international meetings, but not productive work like constructing a new facility.
The fact that they were Korean insinuates that they weren’t doing run-of-the-mill construction tasks because that could be handled by local firms (who would probably be hiring local Latino workers): they were probably there for much more technical work.
Hyundai would have known this, and would have been intentionally breaking this law. This sounds to me a lot more like a big company actually getting consequences than what ice has been doing raiding small businesses and home depot parking lots.
Do you happen to know for certain that b1 visas and ESTA does not cover “productive work like constructing a new facility”? Because I think you are wrong. (I am not an immigration lawyer, but I suspect you are not either).
I have worked for international companies, and got sent over for “productive work” in visa waiver countries, and nobody told me that I needed a visa for any of that. The main focus of immigration law is on making sure people are authorized to take a job in the US. If someone is employed outside the US and comes to the US on behalf of their employer, and not paid for their services by any US entity, then it doesn’t matter what they do, as long as they leave when they are supposed to.
And, in fact, with a casual Google search, I found that a B1 visa does not in fact prohibit those activities: https://www.boundless.com/immigration-resources/b-1-b-2-visitor-visa-explained. It explicitly allows them, for a short duration (but longer than the ETSA waiver would). That link also explicitly says Canadians do not need the B1 visa for short activities, because it is covered under the visa waivers. My guess is it would work the same for any country eligible for the ESTA.
In spite of all this, ICE detained them anyway, because rules don’t apply to them. They get to do whatever the hell they want, because the President hates foreigners. It’s that simple.
Im definitely not a lawyer, but here is a government link.
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/tourism-visit/visitor.html
Permitted activities under b1 include
Not permitted include:
Also on that official site, it says the permitted activities for visa-free (ESTA) are the same as B visas.
The US government actually doesn’t care who is paying for the work, what matters is if the work is taking place within the US, it requires a proper visa (or esta).