ICE raided a Hyundai construction site in Georgia, a model of foreign investment in the United States, and one eagerly sought by the state of Georgia. It arrested about 475 people, apparently the largest raid by ICE or its predecessors in history. A large number of them, apparently about 300, are Korean citizens.

It is common for a foreign investor to bring in some workers, mainly in high-skill, managerial, or technical capacities. It may be that most of the Koreans on the project were lower-level workers, many of them working illegally, though one can suppose that they passed e-Verify tests.

If they did pass e-Verify tests, and were working without authorization, this means that any foreign investment in a major construction project is exposed to hiring unauthorized workers and is exposed to an ICE raid. It is possible that ICE will target these projects, in part because of the potential for mass arrests.

ICE humiliated Korean citizens by publicly chaining them. This will leave a very sour taste among Koreans about what they probably see as a generous gesture by their country to invest in the U.S. under the auspices of an agreement between the two countries.

I suspect that ICE planned this raid with numerous other law enforcement agencies entirely within a bubble, without consultation with civil agencies such as the State Department. I suspect that a lot of people want to become members of the ICE enforcement team in order to have the freedom to grab people off the street and put them into leg chains.  It is not yet clear the infractions committed by the arrested persons. It appears that some or most of them might have overstayed their visa or have engaged in work not consistent with their visa. By law, these are civil infractions, neither misdemeanors nor felonies. The infractions per law are at the level of illegally dumping your household garbage.

One of the core characteristics of Trump’s immigration law enforcement is to deny the dignity of people affected.