The recent Trump administration raid on the Hyundai-LG Energy battery plant in Georgia is not just an isolated law enforcement action—it is a window into the contradictions of corporate America in the 21st century. Four hundred seventy-five workers, most South Korean, were detained for lacking proper work authorisation. Yet these are the very workers on whom the expansion of U.S. industry—especially in cutting-edge sectors like electric vehicles—depends. The enforcement of immigration law here is less about fairness or legality and more about controlling labour while ensuring profits flow to the owners of capital.

The scale of the operation—the largest single-site enforcement in U.S. history—reveals the asymmetry of power. Subcontractors supplying labour were swept up, demonstrating how workers at the bottom of production hierarchies are both essential and disposable. Meanwhile, Hyundai and LG Energy Solution, the corporate owners, continue operations unabated, insulated from the immediate consequences of the raid. The value produced by these workers flows upward, while the risks and vulnerabilities are borne by those with the least power.

South Korea is investing heavily in U.S. industry, with hundreds of billions in trade and direct investment, yet its citizens can be detained en masse when convenient to U.S. political and economic priorities. The raid highlights how labour mobility, corporate expansion, and state enforcement interact—not to protect workers or communities, but to secure the interests of capital.

We should see this not as a series of isolated events but as part of a systemic pattern. Unauthorised or vulnerable workers are constantly exploited to maximise output and profits, while corporations and investors remain shielded. The raid at the Hyundai-LG site exemplifies the logic that labour is controlled, global capital is promoted, and the human cost is invisible to those who benefit.

Ultimately, the lesson is clear: we cannot separate economic policy, labour enforcement, and corporate expansion from the underlying dynamics of corporate power. The workers are essential, yet expendable; the corporations are shielded, yet expanding; and the state acts to maintain the hierarchy, ensuring that capital always comes first.