South Korean workers return home to cheers a week after U.S. immigration raid

By Joyce Lee, Jihoon Lee and Hyunjoo Jin

INCHEON, South Korea (Reuters) - Some 300 South Korean workers returned home on Friday to emotional reunions with families, one week after being detained in a major U.S. immigration raid that left some questioning whether they would ever work in the United States again.

Wearing face masks, they disembarked a chartered plane at Incheon airport and were greeted with cheers from officials, including the presidential chief of staff, before being taken by bus to meet family members.

Their return capped a week of intense negotiations by Seoul to win their release and bring them home after they were taken into custody in handcuffs and shackles - images that shocked many in South Korea, a key U.S. ally.

SOUTH KOREA WANTS CHANGES TO U.S. VISA SYSTEM

South Korean businesses have long struggled with obtaining proper visas for specialist staff needed at project sites for months at a time, which has led to some workers relying on grey areas in U.S. visa enforcement.

The two countries are looking at establishing a working group to consider a new type of visa for Koreans, according to South Korea's foreign minister who visited Washington this week.

Presidential Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik said he had come to the airport to highlight how seriously President Lee Jae Myung was taking the incident that had affected "innocent people of Korea."

"We're in an age of new normal in dealing with the United States," Kang told reporters.

"The standard changes every time and constantly there has to be deal-making, not only on tariffs, but it'll also be the case with security issues," he said.

The workers were met by family members and officials at LG Energy Solution (LGES), and its subcontractors. The battery company is partnering with Hyundai Motor to build the plant in the U.S. state of Georgia.

The raid has threatened to destabilise ties at a time when the countries are seeking to finalise a trade deal, which includes a $350 billion investment fund to support strategic U.S. industries.

In one sign of resentment, at the arrival gate, a man unfurled a large poster depicting U.S. President Donald Trump wearing an outfit with the initials of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement service and carrying a bag full of dollar bills with a machine gun slung across his chest. The caption read: "We're friends!"

Police later forced the poster owner to move away from the arrival gate.

HORRIFIED WORKERS PUT IN HANDCUFFS AND SHACKLES

Returning workers said they were horrified by the September 4 raid conducted jointly by U.S. immigration authorities, the FBI and the Justice Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that rounded up 475 workers at the plant's site.

"It started to look serious because we thought we would be taking the transport vehicle, but then they started putting handcuffs and shackles, and that's when we thought 'Oh, this is not going to be a simple transport,'" LG Energy Solution engineer Choi Young-hee said.

In a sign that Washington recognises the importance of South Korean investment and the skills of the country's workers needed to get plants operational, Trump earlier this week offered to allow the workers to stay to train Americans.

Asked about the overture, Jang Young-seol, an engineer for an LGES subcontractor, said he'd need to think long and hard about it.

"Nobody is going to stay and work when it's like this," he said.

Returning from Washington, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said the workers' return home, initially planned for Wednesday, was halted when Trump intervened, saying "This is not right" and asked if there was a different ending to the case.

South Korean President Lee warned on Thursday that the incident could make South Korean companies hesitant about investing in the United States at a time when Trump has been seeking to encourage foreign investment in manufacturing.

Hyundai has said the plant is facing a minimum startup delay of two to three months following the immigration raid. The plant, part of a $7.6 billion factory complex to make battery-powered models, was slated to come online later this year.

The returning workers included 10 from China, three from Japan and an Indonesian national.

(Reporting by Joyce Lee, Jihoon Lee, Ju-min Park, Hyunjoo Jin; Writing by Jack Kim; Editing by Ed Davies, Edwina Gibbs and Gareth Jones)