Korean Illegal Aliens Arrested at Georgia Plant that Took $300M in Taxpayer-Funded Subsidies

Illegal aliens from South Korea were arrested this week at the SK Innovation construction site in Jackson County, Georgia, by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents after probes by state and federal officials.

ICE agents arrested 13 illegal aliens from South Korea working at the SK Innovation construction site where a battery plant is being built, the agency told local media. The illegal aliens received supervised release while the matter is under investigation.

Months ago, in May, federal immigration officials arrested 33 illegal aliens from South Korea who had been working at the SK Innovation site. Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA), along with others, asked ICE to investigate SK Innovations for their alleged illegal hiring of foreign nationals.

“These arrests confirm what we suspected all along: for months, SK and their contractors have been engaged in an ongoing scheme to illegally employ Korean foreign nationals at their facility in Northeast Georgia,” Collins said in a statement.

“These jobs were promised to hardworking Georgians, and SK’s illegal and immoral actions have been nothing but a betrayal to Georgia taxpayers who have invested heavily in SK’s development in our state,” Collins said. “I want to thank ICE for acting swiftly in response to my calls to deport this illegal workforce and for their commitment to enforcing our immigration laws.”

According to SK Innovations, the illegal aliens were hired by a construction company helping to build the plant which received huge tax breaks and subsidies by Georgia taxpayers.

Last year, Georgia officials enticed SK Innovations to build the battery plant in the state by giving out about $300 million in tax exemptions, grants, and land.

ICE has not said if the employers will face prosecution for hiring the illegal aliens. As Breitbart News has chronicled, though it remains illegal for employers and businesses to knowingly hire illegal aliens over Americans for jobs, very few are ever prosecuted.

A recent case where seven food processing plants were caught hiring nearly 700 illegal aliens has seen just four managers slapped with charges. No executives have been charged. In 2018, for example, only 11 employers and no businesses were prosecuted for hiring illegal aliens.

Today, at least eight million illegal aliens hold American jobs in the U.S. economy that would have otherwise gone to Americans. In most cases, these illegal aliens obtain fraudulent work authorization documents or steal American citizens’ identities in order to take jobs.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.