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South Korean workers detained by ICE return home after saga that has rattled close US friendship

12 September 2025 11:36 (UTC +04:00)

More than 300 South Korean workers detained by immigration authorities in Georgia last week arrived home on Friday, marking the end of a saga that has stunned their nation and threatened to upend a close bilateral friendship between the US and South Korea, APA reports, citing CNN.

The workers arrived at Seoul’s international airport after departing from Atlanta. A small crowd awaited their arrival – with one member putting up a tall banner that depicted an ICE agent carrying a gun and chain, and wearing a mask of US President Donald Trump’s face. “We’re friends! Aren’t we?” the banner read.

Then came tearful reunions between the workers and their loved ones, who had anxiously awaited their return. One mother, who CNN is identifying only by her surname Park, said she hadn’t been able to reach her son at all after his detention.

“I’m grateful he came back healthy. My son has allergies, so that was a concern,” she told CNN on Friday. “Just thinking about him being handcuffed and shackled on his ankles is deeply traumatizing.”

Another mother, who CNN is not naming, said watching the videos of the ICE raid “made me feel so distressed.” She hopes one day it’ll be safe for her son to return overseas for work – “but for now, I don’t want to send him back to the US.”

It’s likely been a week of confusion and fear for the workers, who were chained up during the raid and held for days in detention.

But as they sat inside an ICE facility, the real maelstrom was happening outside – with South Korea’s top diplomat rushing to Washington to negotiate their release, while public fury swelled back home over what many see as a slap in the face from their longtime partner.

South Korea and the US have been staunch allies since the end of the Korean War in 1953 and have stepped up cooperation in recent years, drawing closer in a joint effort to combat Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific. South Korea is also home to the US military’s largest overseas base, which houses 41,000 people including troops and their families.

So images of skilled workers being handcuffed and shackled by ICE agents have outraged many in South Korea and raised questions over the economic partnership that had led these detained workers to the US in the first place – a partnership Trump himself has encouraged.

In August, a summit between Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung yielded promises of billions of dollars of investment into the US from major Korean conglomerates. It’s unclear whether those deals are part of an earlier tariff deal that outlined a $350 billion investment flow from Korea to the US.