Why ICE raided a company that invests billions in the U.S.

Summary

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Episode Overview

Podcast: Apple News Today
Episode: Why ICE raided a company that invests billions in the U.S.
Host: Shumita Basu
Date: September 8, 2025

This episode addresses the fallout from a massive ICE raid at a Hyundai plant in Georgia, exploring its diplomatic reverberations between the U.S. and South Korea. The episode also covers a disappointing U.S. jobs report and discusses how a coalition of legal groups is challenging Trump administration policies in court. Additional headlines touch on the latest developments out of Ukraine, protests in U.S. cities, and the outcomes of the U.S. Open tennis championships.

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Key Segments and Discussion Points

1. ICE Raid at Hyundai Plant & U.S.–South Korea Tensions

[00:05–04:09]

• The Raid:
  ICE arrested 475 people at a Hyundai plant under construction in Georgia, described as the largest on-site workplace operation ever.

  • Footage showed detainees chained and escorted out of the facility.
  • Most arrested were South Korean nationals; some U.S. citizens and legal residents were released after initial detention.

• Official Statements:

  • Homeland Security Special Agent Stephen Schrank summarized the scale and background:

    "This has been a multi month criminal investigation where we have developed evidence, conducted interviews, gathered documents and presented that evidence to the court." (Stephen Schrank, [01:14])

  • The South Korean foreign ministry responded with sharp criticism, holding emergency talks and floating possible travel to Washington.

• Diplomatic Fallout:

  • Ultimately, 300 detainees were released and repatriated to South Korea as part of a diplomatic agreement.
  • CNN correspondent Mike Valerio described the public reaction in South Korea as shock and betrayal:

    "I cannot stress enough... the feeling of betrayal that is emanating from all corners of South Korean society." (Mike Valerio, [02:16])

• Who Hired the Workers?

  • Not fully clear; many were subcontractors for Hyundai and LG.
  • LG suspended business travel to the U.S.; Hyundai promised internal investigation.
  • Georgia has heavily courted South Korean investment, with $17.5 billion in goods traded and numerous Korean-owned businesses in the state.

• Context & Timing:
  The raid closely followed a new U.S.–South Korea trade deal announcement and President Lee’s pledge of $150 billion new investment in America, especially in battery factories (Jasmine Garsd, [03:50]).

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2. A Weak U.S. Jobs Report and the Frozen Labor Market

[04:09–07:27]

• Disappointing Numbers:
  August saw just 22,000 new jobs—far below expectations—with revisions showing earlier job losses for the first time since December 2020.

  • Blue-collar sectors were especially impacted.

• Why the Slowdown? (Courtney Brown, Axios, [05:32])

  • Cost of foreign inputs is up due to new tariffs.
  • Immigration crackdowns make hiring more difficult:

    "We’re hearing anecdotally, it's starting to get really difficult to find the workers they need. Because President Trump's immigration crackdown..."

• Tariffs & Legal Uncertainty:

  • A major court decision found many of Trump’s tariffs illegal, creating uncertainty for employers awaiting the Supreme Court's ruling.

• Labor Market Dynamics:

  • Consumer confidence dropped to a three-month low.
  • Unemployment ticked up from 4.2% to 4.3%.
  • Courtney Brown describes the moment as a "no hire, no fire" market:

    "Hiring is so sluggish. ... If you were laid off because hiring is so sluggish, you are spending more and more time unemployed." ([06:53])

• Disparities:
  Black unemployment hit 7.2%, the highest since October 2021, while the broader rate remains historically low.

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3. Legal Challenges to the Trump Administration

[07:27–11:35]

• Legal Resistance:
  A diverse coalition—lawyers, public interest groups, Democratic state attorneys general, and unions—has mounted numerous legal challenges against Trump’s agenda.

• Track Record:

  • Over 384 cases filed as of late August.
  • Roughly one-third resulted in orders blocking at least part of Trump’s policies.
  • The first lawsuit came hours after inauguration; an early win came when a funding freeze letter was withdrawn due to legal action.

• Playbook Developed:
  Michael Shearer of The Atlantic explained how these groups quickly mobilize:

  "They drafted up legal arguments for potential moves Trump might make, made calls to find plaintiffs and supporting evidence... and rushed to court to file lawsuits." ([09:57])

• Impact Beyond the Courtroom:

  • The lawsuits exposed government actions and enabled transparency through depositions and records.

  "It gave civil servants the ability to testify and give depositions about what they'd been asked to do and what they'd refused to do." (Michael Shearer, [10:31])

• Judicial Landscape:

  • About 40% of cases have been decided in Trump’s favor.
  • Supreme Court has been more accommodating to the administration than lower courts.
  • Many cases remain undecided and could shape the legal framework for presidential powers by the term’s end.

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4. Other Major Headlines

[11:35–End]

• Ukraine Airstrikes:
  Russia targeted government buildings in Kyiv in the war’s largest aerial assault so far, killing at least four, including a child. President Zelensky condemned the attack. ([11:35])

• U.S. Protests:
  Thousands protested in D.C. and Chicago against Trump’s use of federal agents and, in D.C., the temporary federal takeover of the police.

• US Open Tennis:

  • Carlos Alcaraz (Spain) won his second U.S. Open title, defeating Jannik Sinner (Italy).
  • On the women’s side, Aryna Sabalenka (Belarus) beat Amanda Anisimova (U.S.) for her second consecutive title.
  • President Trump attended, the first sitting president at the men’s final since 2000.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the ICE raid’s shock waves:

  "I cannot stress enough... the feeling of betrayal that is emanating from all corners of South Korean society."
  — Mike Valerio, CNN ([02:16])

• On labor market paralysis:

  "We are in what myself and my colleagues have been calling the frozen labor market, the no hire, no fire labor market."
  — Courtney Brown, Axios ([06:53])

• On the legal pushback strategy:

  "They drafted up legal arguments for potential moves Trump might make, made calls to find plaintiffs and supporting evidence... and rushed to court to file lawsuits."
  — Michael Shearer, The Atlantic ([09:57])

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Key Timestamps

• 00:05 – Show introduction and ICE raid headline
• 01:14 – Homeland Security’s statement on the raid
• 02:16 – South Korean media and public reaction
• 03:50 – U.S.–South Korea trade/investment context
• 05:03 – August jobs report breakdown
• 06:53 – "No hire, no fire" labor market
• 09:00–10:31 – Legal strategies against Trump administration
• 11:35 – Quick headlines: Ukraine, protests, US Open

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For more detailed stories or articles referenced in this episode, visit the Apple News app.

Transcript

[A]

Good morning. It's Monday, September 8th. I'm Shemitah Basu. This is Apple News today. On today's show, what another weak jobs report says about the overall economy, the patchwork group taking on Trump in court and succeeding, and the winners from this year's U.S. open. But first, the latest on the arrest of hundreds of people at a Hyundai plant in Georgia. The administration is describing it as the largest on site workplace operation ever conducted by ice. But it's quickly become a tense diplomatic issue between the US and one of its closest allies, South Korea.

[B]

We need construction to cease immediately. We need all work to end on the site right now.

[A]

Footage obtained by CNN showed officials storming the facility under construction in Georgia on Thursday where they arrested 475 people leading detainees away shackled together. Here's Homeland Security Special Agent Stephen Schrank describing the operation at a press conference.

[C]

This has been a multi month criminal investigation where we have developed evidence, conducted interviews, gathered documents and presented that evidence to the court.

[A]

Homeland Security claims the workers detained there were in the US Illegally or working at the site illegally. An official acknowledged that some US Citizens and lawful permanent residents were initially detained but were eventually released. Most of those arrested were South Korean nationals, which led the South Korean Foreign Ministry to express concern and regret at the news, a rare public criticism of US Policy. Their government held emergency talks on Saturday where, according to the Associated Press, the foreign minister floated the possibility of traveling to Washington. But after discussions over the weekend, the South Korean government says a deal has been reached. 300 people are now being released from detention and sent back to South Korea. CNN correspondent Mike Valerio in Seoul told the network how the news was being received.

[C]

There is an astonished and floored feeling that people have looking at this video released from ice, seeing fello South Korean citizens with chains around their waists led away in handcuffs. When you're talking about a key American ally right next door to China in this critical part of the world that's trying to help out American industry. I cannot stress enough to our American audience and people watching around the world the feeling of betrayal that is emanating from all corners of South Korean society.

[A]

So far, it's not completely clear who hired the workers. The New York Times reports among those arrested were subcontractors of both Hyundai and lg, the other Seoul based company collaborating on the plant. LG has responded by suspending most travel to the US and brought staff on business trips home. Hyundai says it isn't aware of any of its employees being detained and it will investigate hiring practices by suppliers and subcontractors. Hyundai has invested billions in the American south, and Georgia has responded by offering billions in tax breaks to Hyundai. Around 100 Korean owned facilities operate in the state of Georgia, according to Georgia's Department of Economic Development, and they trade more than $17.5 billion in goods. Republican Governor Brian Kemp has made frequent trips to the country. The timing of this raid comes on the heels of an announcement of a new trade deal between the U.S. and South Korea. Here's NPR' Jasmine Garsd speaking on the network.

[D]

Over the weekend, President Trump has made it a priority to bring manufacturing to the U.S. in fact, just over a week ago, he hosted President Lee Jae Myung of South Korea, who pledged to invest an additional $150 billion in the US including in battery factories.

[A]

It remains to be seen whether that deal and the goodwill generated by it will be rocked by this workplace raid. Meanwhile, border czar Tom Homan told CNN the administration is planning more worksite enforcement operations like the one in Georgia. Let's turn now to the broader economy. The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its latest jobs report on Friday, the first since President Trump fired the official responsible for presenting the findings after weaker than expected numbers month. The latest report wasn't any better.

[D]

When the data came out on Friday. I think the first thought that I had and several of my other sources was oof, yikes.

[A]

That's Courtney Brown, economics reporter at Axios. The US economy added 22,000 new jobs in August, a figure that was far below expectations and a long way behind the roughly 100,000 being added every month at the beginning of this year and following some revisions to June and July, it was the first time the labor market lost jobs since December of 2020. Blue collar industries were especially hit. Brown told us she thinks two factors are at play here.

[D]

One, foreign goods, foreign inputs that they might use to build goods. They're way more expensive now because of tariffs. And then you have the other side, which is even if employers, including manufacturers, want to hire, we're hearing anecdotally, it's starting to get really difficult to find the workers they need. Because President Trump's immigration crackdown, other sectors.

[A]

Like finance, business services and information were also hit. Health care drove most of the jobs created, but Brown notes even that is slowing. The other big cloud hanging over many businesses looking to recruit is tariffs. As Brown mentioned, a court recently ruled that most of Trump's tariffs were illegal and beyond his authority, a decision that Trump has now taken to the Supreme Court.

[D]

So if I'm an employer right now. Am I just going to delay as many decisions as I can until I figure out, well, how much is it going to cost me to get goods from overseas? Am I going to agree to do a huge project when I don't know what that might cost me, what the economy is going to look like, what the tariff impact might be?

[A]

That uncertainty could also be why consumer confidence hit a three month low in August. But while unemployment has risen slightly from 4.2 to 4.3%, Brown says that not because companies are suddenly shedding all their workers.

[D]

We are in what myself and my colleagues have been calling the frozen labor market, the no hire, no fire labor market. Hiring is so sluggish. But when you look on the other side of the equation, there aren't mass layoffs happening in the US Economy. But what we're seeing is that if you were laid off because hiring is so sluggish, you are spending more and more time unemployed.

[A]

That means that people could be experiencing the economy very differently right now. If you're in a secure job, it might not feel like there's a shortage. And if your earnings depend on Wall street performance, you could be having a very strong year as markets continue to perform well. But for people out of work, the crisis could be acute, especially for certain groups. While 4.3% unemploy is still low by historic standards, for black Americans, that number has surged to 7.2%, the highest level since October of 2021. Trump's response to the latest jobs report was more muted than last month. He repeated his call for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, something that economists believe is more likely after this latest and now a check in on various legal challenges to the Trump administration. President Trump took office with few hurdles to his agenda in Congress. His party controls both houses. And among Republican lawmakers, dissent is rare. Democrats, meanwhile, have relatively few options to check Trump's attempts to expand executive powers. But there's one coalition that has had some success. Lawyers, public interest groups, Democratic state attorneys general, and unions.

[B]

They really doubled down on using legal strategies like a full on daily battle, hundreds of cases to resist what he was planning to do.

[A]

Michael Shearer is a staff writer for the Atlantic.

[B]

And they have a pretty decent win record. It's not perfect. It's messy. It's really complicated. A lot of these are preliminary injunctions that may be overturned, but they've been able to hold back and really frustrate some of the president's desires.

[A]

As of late August, 384 cases have been filed against the Trump administration, according to Just Security, a law policy journal. And roughly a third have resulted in orders blocking at least parts of Trump's agenda. The very first lawsuit, which sought information on how the Doge team was considering cuts, was filed just hours after Trump's inauguration.

[B]

It was sort of a shot in the dark to begin, but it was also a show of intent. And then just a week later, you had another lawsuit. The Office of Management and Budget had put out a letter to the country, basically freezing federal funding for all kinds of spending. And an injunction quickly came afterwards, and the letter was withdrawn.

[A]

Shearer says that case involving the Office of Management and Budget created a playbook for attorneys to follow. They drafted up legal arguments for potential moves Trump might make, made calls to find plaintiffs and supporting evidence to demonstrate alleged harm caused by the administration, and rushed to court to file lawsuits. They've blocked executive orders, forced delays of deportation flights, and maintained foreign students ability to continue studying at U.S. universities. And Shearer says the lawsuits have played a critical role in keeping the public aware of the administration's actions.

[B]

Because this information was being turned up in court as part of the factual record, it gave civil servants the ability to testify and give depositions about what they'd been asked to do and what they'd refused to do. It gave local governments the ability to detail how funding cuts were affecting them and their citizens.

[A]

According to Just Security, Trump has won about 40% of cases brought against his administration as of mid August. And Shearer says the Supreme Court so far has been more favorable to his administration than lower courts. There are roughly 150 cases still waiting on a ruling.

[B]

Courts take a long time to make these decisions, and most of the rulings we've got in the last six or seven months have basically been judges saying, I think the plaintiffs here are probably going to succeed, so I'm stopping this activity. But the next phase of all of this is to actually debate the merits of the actual arguments and to have a trial. And we probably won't know until the end of Trump's term where the courts land on a lot of the substantive issues that have been raised.

[A]

Meanwhile, the groups bringing these lawsuits say they plan to keep filing more. Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following. Russia hit key government buildings in Ukraine's capital for the first time since the war began in a drone and missile strike that killed at least four people over the weekend, including an infant and a young woman. Reuters reports it was the largest air attack of the war so far. Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the strike as a deliberate attack and an attempt to prolong the war. President Trump suggested on Sunday to reporters, without offering details, that he was ready to step up sanctions against Russia or its oil trading partners. Two days after NBC News reported growing pessimism to ending the war from inside the White House. Here in the U.S. thousands marched in Washington, D.C. and Chicago to protest against President Trump's use of federal agents for state law enforcement. Dubbed the We Are All DC March, it was one of the first major organized marches in the Capitol since Trump sent in the National Guard and temporarily took control of the police department, a measure that's set to expire on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Chicagoans were protesting the prospect of similar action in their city. On Saturday, Trump posted to social media that Chicago is about to find out why it's called the Department of War, alluding to the recent rebranding of the Department of Defense. And finally, Carlos Alcaraz from Spain won the men's championship at the US Open yesterday, defeating his rival Italian Jannik Sinner in four sets to take his second title at Flushing Meadows. It was the third consecutive meeting of the men's world number one and two in a Grand Slam final. Sinner last beat Alcaraz to win Wimbledon in July. On the women's side, top ranked Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka beat American Amanda Anisimova in straight sets to take her second consecutive women's U.S. open. President Trump was also in attendance on Sunday, the first sitting president since Bill Clinton in 2000 to attend the final. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the news app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next. Wired has the story of a legal battle between a Silicon Valley investor and her surrogate over the stillbirth of a baby and the complicated laws around surrogacy in America. If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News plus Narrated to find that story. And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.