Trump Says He Was Unaware of Georgia Arrests of Korean Workers; Hard‐Line Aide Miller Seen as Driving Force Behind Raid

According to Financial News, foreign media reported that former President Donald Trump did not know about the arrest of some 300 Korean workers when U.S. immigration authorities carried out a raid in the State of Georgia last September.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 4th (local time) that on September 4 last year, when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained 317 Korean workers at the construction site of a joint battery plant of Hyundai Motor and LG Energy Solution in Georgia, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp called President Trump and asked him to release them. According to the Journal, during that call Trump privately told Kemp that he "did not know about the large-scale arrests at the Georgia plant."
This account aligns with Trump’s public remarks after the arrests, when he told reporters he had only learned of the incident "right before the press conference" and that he "didn’t know anything about it." He then added that "they were illegal immigrants, and ICE was just doing its job."
WSJ pointed to White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who has led hard-line immigration enforcement, as the driving force behind the large-scale raid. Considered one of the most influential figures in the administration, Miller is known for designing Trump’s second-term hard-line immigration agenda and for setting a deportation target of "3,000 people a day."
The paper noted that at the time of the Georgia incident, Trump told his aides he "no longer wanted large-scale arrest operations at factories and farms." Despite this, Miller is said to have continued to push for sweeping enforcement actions.
whywani@fnnews.com Hong Chae-wan Reporter