Julie O’Donoghue | Louisiana Illuminator
In a defiant tone, Gov. Jeff Landry said nothing has changed about Hyundai Motor Group’s plans to open a massive $5.8 billion steel plant in Donaldsonville, even after an immigration raid on the South Korean company’s facility in Georgia sparked outrage back home.
“I would think that whatever they did that they weren’t supposed to do, I’m sure they are not going to do it here in Louisiana,” Landry said Tuesday at an economic development news conference.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents threw the United States’ relationship with trade partner South Korea into turmoil when they conducted a raid Sept. 4 at the Hyundai-LG Energy Solution battery plant in Ellabell, Georgia. Federal authorities detained more than 300 South Koreans working at the factory.
After the immigration sweep, U.S. officials released a video showing detained South Koreans shackled in chains. Some complained they were kept in unsanitary conditions while in custody.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung warned this week that South Korean companies might be reluctant to invest further in the U.S. following the raid, the Associated Press reported. The South Korean government also plans to investigate whether American officials committed human rights violations against the detainees.
But a spokesman for Hyundai Motor Group said Tuesday the company will stay the course with its plans in Louisiana.
“There are no changes to our previously announced plans. We have a strategic long-term commitment to the U.S. market,” Michael Stewart, director of public relations and communications at Hyundai Motor North America, wrote in an email.
Some of the South Koreans were working at the Georgia plant illegally, U.S. officials have said.
South Korean officials have criticized the U.S. visa process, particularly the cap on specialized worker visas, which they said makes it difficult for their companies to operate in America, according to The Washington Post.
In Baton Rouge, Landry refused to answer a reporter’s question about whether foreign nationals would work on the steel plant project in South Louisiana.
“I mean, it’s a pretty trick question, I mean, it’s a pretty big project,” the governor responded.
“I don’t expect anybody illegally to be working on the project,” Landry added.
President Donald Trump struck a more conciliatory tone Sunday in a Truth Social post that addressed fallout from the Georgia raid. He welcomed foreign companies to bring foreign workers into the U.S., at least on a temporary basis.
“I don’t want to frighten off or disincentivize Investment into America by outside Countries or Companies,” Trump wrote. “We welcome them, we welcome their employees, and we are willing to proudly say we will learn from them, and do even better than them at their own ‘game,’ sometimes into the not too distant future!”
In an interview Tuesday, Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Susan Bourgeois said she expects South Korean nationals will work at the Donaldsonville site. But their positions will not count toward the more 1,300 jobs Hyundai Steel has committed to creating in Louisiana as part of its project, she said.
“Could there be foreign nationals here? I assume there could be,” Bourgeois said. “But absolutely, Hyundai Steel is committed to using Louisiana labor on that project.”
Bourgeois said her team met with Hyundai Steel officials shortly after the Georgia raid to talk about logistics and progress on the Donaldsonville project. At that time, no concerns were raised about the immigration sweep having an impact on the company’s Louisiana plans, she said.
“They have not taken their foot off the gas pedal,” she said.
The project is Hyundai’s first steel plant in the United States and was announced with a lot of fanfare at a March event held at the White House with Trump and and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton. It’s expected to supply automobile factories in Alabama and Georgia with steel for the production of several hundred thousand cars per year after it is completed in 2030.
Louisiana officials have devoted $600 million in state and local taxpayer funds to support the facility, according to The Times-Picayune, in part because it is expected to be transformational for the Donaldsonville area. Officials have said the 1,300 jobs affiliated with the plant will have an average salary of $95,000, far above Louisiana’s $58,000 median household income.
State Rep. Ken Brass, a Democrat who represents Donaldsonville, said he is confident Louisiana citizens will be hired for jobs at the plant and at other smaller businesses that open up to support the facility.
A new community and technical college branch in Donaldsonville that will train plant workers was included in the incentive package used to lure Hyundai to Louisiana. The state already has design plans for the $30 million training facility, Brass said.
“There is definitely a commitment for training for local jobs,” he said in an interview Tuesday.