South Korea is set to send a chartered plane to Atlanta as early as Wednesday to repatriate workers detained during a massive immigration raid last week at a car battery plant in Georgia, a Korean Air spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday.
The flight will be operated by a Korean Air Boeing 747-8i with 368 seats, traveling from Incheon, South Korea, to Atlanta.
The U.S. immigration sweep saw about 300 South Koreans among 475 people arrested at the site of a $4.3 billion project by Hyundai Motor and LG Energy Solution to manufacture electric vehicle batteries.
South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun is en route to Washington to negotiate, including securing assurances that the detained workers will be permitted to re-enter the United States.
Officials from South Korea have already begun arrangements to bring the workers home, according to a senior diplomatic official who met with the detainees in Georgia.
The raid, the largest single-site enforcement action in the history of the Department of Homeland Security, has sent shockwaves through South Korea, a key U.S. ally, which is currently finalizing a trade agreement with Washington reached in July.
