After the immigration enforcement at a South Korean-owned battery factory in Georgia, President Donald Trump is signaling a softening tone on permitting “people of expertise for a period of time to teach and train our people.”
“When foreign companies who are building extremely complex products, machines, and various other ‘things,’ come into the United States with massive investments, I want them to bring their people of expertise for a period of time to teach and train our people how to make these very unique and complex products, as they phase out of our country, and back into their land,” Trump wrote in a detailed Truth Social post Sunday.
“If we didn’t do this, all of that massive investment will never come in the first place — chips, semiconductors, computers, ships, trains, and so many other products that we have to learn from others how to make, or, in many cases, relearn, because we used to be great at it, but not anymore.
“For example, shipbuilding, where we used to build a ship a day and now, we barely build a ship a year. I don’t want to frighten off or disincentivize investment into America by outside countries or companies.
“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,’ sometime into the not too distant future!”
South Korea threatened to cut back on U.S. investment in precisely that vein after the Georgia immigration raid this past week.
Federal agents detained more than 300 workers — including 316 South Koreans — on allegations of visa violations. Video footage of workers being handcuffed and led away sparked anger in Seoul, where officials called the treatment humiliating and a threat to bilateral economic ties.
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung has demanded reforms to U.S. visa rules, warning that Korean companies will hesitate to expand in America unless their skilled employees are guaranteed lawful, temporary status to carry out high-value work.
“It’s not like these are long-term workers,” Lee, who visited the Oval Office on Aug. 25, said. “When you build a factory or install equipment at a factory, you need technicians, but the United States doesn’t have that workforce and yet they won’t issue visas to let our people stay and do the work.
“If that’s not possible, then establishing a local factory in the United States will either come with severe disadvantages or become very difficult for our companies. They will wonder whether they should even do it.”
Lee denounced the raid as a “cultural difference” between the two countries in how they handle immigration issues.
“In South Korea, we see Americans coming on tourist visas to teach English at private cram schools — they do it all the time, and we don’t think much of it. It’s just something you accept,” Lee added.
“But the United States clearly doesn’t see things that way. On top of that, U.S. immigration authorities pledge to strictly forbid illegal immigration and employment and carry out deportations in various aggressive ways, and our people happened to be caught in one of those cases.”
The issue strikes at the intersection of immigration, trade, and industrial policy. The Biden administration promoted foreign investment through subsidies for chipmakers and clean energy firms, but labor mobility — particularly the movement of skilled engineers and technicians — remains tightly regulated.
Trump, who has often campaigned on restricting immigration, appeared in this case to adopt a more pragmatic tone, stressing that foreign expertise is essential if America wants to remain competitive in advanced industries.
As U.S. manufacturers and foreign investors watch closely, the question is whether Washington can reconcile its tough immigration rules with its push to attract high-tech investment — a balance that may prove decisive in shaping America’s industrial future.
Material from The Associated Press was used to compile this report.
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