South Korea asks U.S. to support new visa as arrested workers fly home

South Korea has called for the U.S. Congress to support a new visa for Korean businesses, the country's Foreign Ministry said on Friday, as hundreds of Korean workers arrested during a massive immigration raid head home.

During meetings with U.S. senators in Washington, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun reiterated concerns among South Koreans over the arrests of Korean professionals that participated in investment projects in the U.S., the ministry said in a statement.

Some 300 South Koreans were arrested last week along with more than 150 others at at a battery factory under construction at Hyundai’s sprawling auto plant in the state of Georgia. After being held for a week by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the South Korean workers were released and scheduled to fly home from Atlanta.

U.S. President Donald Trump offered to allow hundreds of the South Korean workers to stay in the United States, but only one has opted to remain, South Korean officials said on Thursday. Trump's overture sought to encourage the workers to stay and train Americans, according to the officials. It resulted in a one-day delay to the departure of a chartered plane to bring the workers home.

TV footage showed the workers boarding buses outside the barbed-wire clad fences of a detention centre at around 2 a.m. to go to Atlanta airport. Unlike other deportees, they were not handcuffed – satisfying a key demand from South Korea, which has been horrified by the raid, particularly by the use of armored vehicles and shackles.

The raid sent shockwaves across South Korea and has threatened to destabilize ties at a time when both countries are seeking to finalize a trade deal, and to scare off South Korean investment in the United States that Trump has been keen to secure.

Following the raid, the battery plant is facing a minimum startup delay of two to three months, Hyundai CEO Jose Munoz said on Thursday.

Washington and Seoul have now agreed to discuss establishing a new visa category for South Koreans, Cho has said.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Thursday that hundreds of South Korean workers arrested during the immigration raid had the wrong visas.

"I called up the Koreans, I said, oh, give me a break. Get the right visa and if you're having problems getting the right visa, call me," Lutnick said in an interview with Axios.

South Korean companies have complained for years that they have struggled to obtain short-term work visas for specialists needed at their high-tech U.S. plants, and had come to rely on a grey zone of looser interpretation of visa rules under previous U.S. administrations.

(With input from Reuters)