Last week, the largest single immigration raid in Homeland Security history took place at the Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant in Ellabell, Ga. Though this operation occurred 200 miles from Atlanta, its effects reverberate across Tech's campus and around the world.

Of the 475 people arrested, 300 were South Korean nationals hired to oversee the ongoing construction of the plant. The majority of people arrested did not work directly for Hyundai; they were mostly subcontractors on expired visas or visa waivers that prohibited them from working.

The raid encompasses many of the ongoing political debates in the country -- not just immigration.

The plant, which Hyundai and LG Energy Solution co-own, is part of a $7.6 billion deal that Gov. Brian Kemp unveiled in 2022. It is the largest economic development project in state history, backed by nearly $2 billion in tax-payer funded incentives. Hyundai, based out of South Korea, is poised to make Georgia into an electric vehicle hub. South Korea is Georgia's third-largest trading partner; since taking office in 2019, Kemp has visited the country twice.

Georgia's relationship with Hyundai has not only provided numerous benefits for clean energy enthusiasts, it has led to major changes on campus. In 2022, Hyundai funded a $120,000 STEM scholarship at Tech. Not even a year later, Tech and Hyundai announced their partnership, including multi-decade investment in research and athletics.

Given all these benefits, there should be an easier way for immigrants to obtain documented status. Though H1B visas allow highly-skilled workers to enter the country, these visas cost thousands of dollars. Policymakers should provide some accelerated, low-cost channels for people filling jobs that we cannot easily fill ourselves.

But it does not just fall on higher-levels of government to resolve this issue -- the contractor that sent these workers on improper visas must be held accountable. Companies are responsible for the safety of their employees, particularly in the face of complex bureaucratic issues that workers may not have the resources to handle on their own.

This raid was part of a broader immigration crackdown from President Donald Trump, and Kemp has not strayed far from that agenda.

However, interestingly, those detained in the raid will be able to return to South Korea fairly quickly. The Department of Homeland Security held detainees at a detention facility near the Fla. border until the South Korean government negotiated their return by charter plane on Sunday. A plane left from Seoul, South Korea on Wednesday to pick up the detainees for "voluntary departure." The ability of the South Korean government to negotiate a flight home for its detained citizens is notable since it is not a privilege that all countries have received.

In Trump's first term in office, immigration detention centers separated families at the southern border and infamously put children in chain-link enclosures as their cases were processed. SMore recently, since taking office this year, the U.S. and Colombia nearly entered a trade war after the Colombian President blocked two U.S. military flights carrying undocumented immigrants from entering the country.

If one group of people is held inhumanely in detention centers for weeks or months and another can fly home quickly and comfortably, immigration policy needs reform. There must be the opportunity for due process and fair treatment under the law; treatment cannot be fair if it is dependent on the value of a passport. The immigration debate is complex, but immigration officials should apply immigration law equally regardless of the bargaining power of one's home country. The South Korean immigrants detained in Ellabell were able to return home on a plane after high-level negotiations, not held in a crowded detention center or inhumanely transported back and forth across borders.

This is not the first time that the Hyundai Metaplant has been the setting for a political battle.

In 2018, Kemp campaigned as a Trump-loyalist, known for his ads where he proclaimed to be prepared to round up illegal immigrants in his truck and use his Second Amendment right to defend his daughter from the young man trying to date her.

Kemp lauds the plant as an economic win for Georgians, but perhaps more strikingly, the deal is popular across the aisle. Democratic U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff has expressed his support for the plant and its investment in electric vehicle manufacturing. However, the hub has faced its share of criticism. Some Republicans attacked the plant's reliance on clean energy tax incentives backed by former President Joe Biden. Since taking office this year, President Donald Trump has begun to dismantle these Biden-era policies.