By Amanda Musa, Hanna Park, Yoonjung Seo, Mike Valerio

(CNN) — When hundreds of federal, state and local officers descended on a Georgia Hyundai manufacturing plant last week, they came armed with a judicial search warrant naming four people. Ultimately, over 450 people were taken into custody, officials say, suspected of living and working illegally in the United States.

The high-stakes raid followed a monthslong investigation and marked the largest sweep yet in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown at US worksites. Its repercussions reached high into the halls of diplomacy, prompting South Korea’s foreign minister to offer to personally travel to Washington, DC, “to engage directly with US officials to resolve this matter.”

A majority of those arrested — over 300 — are South Korean, according to the country’s foreign affairs minister, and are now slated to return to South Korea on a chartered flight in what immigration attorneys are calling a unique agreement.

“I do not know of another instance where a government has responded with chartering a flight,” Sarah Owings, an immigration attorney representing several of the South Koreans detained on Thursday, told CNN.

An empty Korean Air plane is set to leave for Atlanta as early as Wednesday morning to help repatriate the workers detained in Georgia, a spokesperson for the airline told CNN. The plane, a Boeing 747 capable of carrying 368 people, is expected to embark on the roughly 15-hour return flight late Wednesday afternoon, the spokesperson said.

Those detained by US immigration authorities “are expected to return home soon,” South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said Tuesday, expressing his “heartfelt consolation” to all those impacted.

The South Korean leader decried the detentions as “unjust infringements on the activities of our people and businesses” and said he hopes such practices “will not happen again.”

The South Korean government has been actively working to secure the workers’ release, along with its representatives at the Korean Embassy in Washington, DC, and the Consulate General in Atlanta.

Foreign Affairs Minister Cho Hyun left Seoul Monday evening local time for Washington, DC, as Seoul works to bring back the nationals as soon as possible “by voluntary departure,” the ministry spokesperson’s office said.

“The government will ensure that all necessary measures are effectively implemented to achieve both the swift release of our detained citizens and the stable implementation of the investment projects,” South Korean Presidential Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik said Sunday.

Here’s what we know about the workers detained, their anticipated return to South Korea and the sprawling Hyundai–LG battery plant where they worked.

Not business as usual, attorneys say

The Korean government’s actions are “not the normal course of business,” according to Jorge Gavilanes, an Atlanta-based immigration attorney who works for a law firm contacted by a few detainees.

“From what we’ve seen with immigration over the years and different administrations, (the charter) seems to make sense based on what their immigration status might be,” Gavilanes told CNN.

It’s unclear what kind of visas the Korean nationals working at the plant had. Some of the 475 detained entered the US illegally, according to Steven Schrank, a Homeland Security Investigations special agent in charge, while others had overstayed their visas. Others were in here under the US Visa Waiver Program which allows workers to travel for tourism or business for up to 90 days, and had subsequently been prohibited from working,

“When you enter under the Visa Waiver Program, then you’re not going to have an opportunity to see a judge to be removed, you’re just automatically issued an order by ICE” to leave the country, Gavilanes said. Typically, these individuals would be removed from the US at the government’s expense, but in this case, he said, the South Korean government is footing the bill.

“It seems like it’s within South Korea’s best interest to try to get their people back as quickly as possible,” Gavilanes said.

Questions over detainees’ legal status

Lawyers for some of the detained workers insist their clients were legally working on the Georgia site, which is a joint venture between Hyundai and LG Energy Solution, two powerhouses of South Korean industry.

Immigration attorney Charles Kuck told CNN that two detained workers he’s representing were authorized to work under a visa waiver. One arrived in the US near the end of August, and the other arrived several weeks ago, Kuck said, noting both are engineers who came to the US “to advise briefly on the work” being done at the site.

Kuck said his clients “had a specific time they were going to be here and leave, for a specific task that they were assigned to do here as part of their company’s contract with Hyundai.”

While none of the Korean nationals worked directly for Hyundai, about 50 of them worked for LG Energy Solutions. Another 250 mostly Korean national employees worked for HL-GA Battery Company LLC, which operates under Hyundai and LG.

In a statement to CNN, a spokesperson for LG Energy Solution said the company was cooperating with the process: “We will commit our best efforts to ensure the safe and prompt return of our employees and those of our partners.”

When asked Monday about the visa status of the detained workers, the company told CNN, “The visa status of the detained individuals is under investigation, so we don’t know yet.”

CNN has reached out to the State Department, Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Hyundai for comment.

Support for detainees

Earlier, LG Energy Solution told CNN its head of Human Resources was traveling to Georgia and that the company’s top priority was the “prompt release” of the detained workers.

The company also said it was suspending most of its business trips to the US. “Currently traveling employees are advised to immediately return home or remain at their accommodations, considering their current work status,” a statement read.

Outside the facility Saturday, protesters gathered with bold banners and chanted in Spanish and Korean, demanding justice for the hundreds of workers detained.

“These people have families and loved ones and they have no contact with them,” one protester, who gave his name only as Kim, told CNN, calling the raid “disgusting.”

What happened in Ellabell

The workers detained Thursday worked at the Hyundai Metaplant in Ellabell, Georgia – about 25 miles west of Savannah.

The 2,900-acre complex has two parts: a Hyundai electric vehicle manufacturing site, and an EV battery plant still under construction that is a joint venture between Hyundai and LG. The plant was projected to employ up to 8,500 people when complete.

The raid halted construction of the EV battery plant, The Associated Press reported.

In 2022, Hyundai announced an agreement with the state of Georgia to build Hyundai’s “first dedicated fully electrified vehicle and battery manufacturing facilities in the United States” in Bryan County, the company said.

A search warrant filed Tuesday in the Southern District of Georgia identified four people specifically to be searched, but authorities arrived with substantial personnel and equipment, suggesting an intention to conduct a broader sweep.

“This was not an immigration operation where agents went into the premises, rounded up folks and put them on buses,” Schrank said.

“This has been a multi-month criminal investigation where we have developed evidence, conducted interviews, gathered documents and presented that evidence to the court in order to obtain judicial search warrants.”

While Schrank said the majority of detainees were Korean, he did not provide a breakdown of the workers’ nationalities. Three were Japanese citizens, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary said Tuesday. Nearly two dozen were Mexican, Mexico’s consulate in Atlanta said over the weekend.

During the operation, masked and armed agents gave orders to construction workers wearing hard hats and safety vests as they lined up while officers raided the facility, video footage obtained by CNN showed.

ICE and Homeland Security Investigations were accompanied by the Georgia State Patrol, the FBI, DEA, ATF and other agencies in executing a search warrant.

“Together, we are sending a clear and unequivocal message: those who exploit our workforce, undermine our economy, and violate federal laws will be held accountable,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.

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