Welcome to the Daily 5 report for Monday, Sept. 8.
The fallout from the U.S. immigration raid on the Hyundai-LG joint venture battery plant project in Georgia played out all weekend as the South Korean government responded to the detention of about 300 of its citizens.
In short, the Koreans want to ensure this doesn't happen again.
The incident created a clash between two Trump administrations priorities: increasing foreign industrial investment in the U.S. versus cracking down on illegal or noncompliant immigration.
Trump critics will contend you can't expect foreign companies to invest in the U.S. if workers get treated like criminals.
Trump supporters will argue those companies still need to follow immigration rules and should be hiring in the U.S. instead of bringing in workers from overseas.
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Either way, the Trump administration will be under pressure to clarify the rules with South Korea and other trading partners to avoid jeopardizing multibillion-dollar automotive projects such as the one backed by Hyundai in Georgia.
To be sure, Hyundai hasn't been on solid ground with labor practices in the U.S. As Reuters reported in this comprehensive investigative project from 2022, at least four major Hyundai-Kia suppliers employed child labor at Alabama factories in recent years, and state and federal agencies looked into whether children worked at as many as a half dozen additional manufacturers throughout the automakers' supply chain in the state.
Hyundai's history in Alabama begs the question of whether the raids last week stemmed from U.S. regulators' previous investigations.
The controversy will no doubt come up this week at the Automotive News Congress in Detroit, on Sept. 11, with Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung scheduled to speak.
Meanwhile, we have unveiled this year's class of Automotive News Rising Stars. Their profiles are loaded with compelling stories about the future leadership of the industry.
We also published this in-depth report on eight standout disrupters in the modern auto industry. They each made a profound impact by changing the status quo.
Finally, we published several stories from the IAA Mobility show in Munich, including breaking news from Volkswagen Group and BMW.
That's it for now. If you want to see this story in your browser, click here.
— Philip Nussel, online editor
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