The Great Georgia Jobs Swindle
Foreign labor, corporate loopholes, and Democratic leaders siding against the very workers they claim to represent.
Georgia Democrats love to brand themselves as pro-worker. They’ll hold rallies with union signs and tell us they’re the party of the people. But when the rubber meets the road—or in this case, when the concrete is poured in Bryan County—they’re loud and proud about siding with foreign nationals working here illegally, even when it comes at the direct expense of the blue-collar Georgians they claim to champion.
Subsidies for the Rich, Scraps for the Locals
Let’s set the stage: the federal government showered Hyundai and its Korean partners with billions in subsidies. Georgia’s Republican leadership added billions more in tax breaks. Georgia and local governments offered Hyundai $1.8 billion in tax incentives—part of a broader $5.5 billion-plus deal for its EV and battery complex, a project valued at roughly $7.6 billion. The whole package was sold to the people of Savannah and surrounding counties as a once-in-a-lifetime economic boost: good-paying jobs for Georgians. Families watched farmland paved over for megafactories because they were promised opportunity in return.
Instead, what they got was the largest single-site immigration enforcement action in U.S. history: roughly 475 workers detained on September 4, including more than 300 South Koreans and dozens of Latino workers, mainly Mexicans. Many were paid $5 to $8 an hour through staffing agencies, while qualified local workers sat unemployed. Skilled tradesmen—pipefitters, welders, electricians—were still told 'nothing’s available.' The promised boom turned instead into a bait-and-switch enabled by corporate outsourcing and weak enforcement.
Some of those detained were South Koreans on B-1 business visas—intended for meetings or specialized technical setup, not construction shifts—alongside others who had overstayed or otherwise violated visa terms. That nuance doesn’t change the bottom line: Georgians were locked out of the jobs they were promised.
Hyundai knows what it’s doing. This is a repeat business model: subcontract out, hide behind service agreements, and import exploitable labor. It’s cheaper than paying Georgians a fair $20–$30 an hour with benefits.
The Human Cost: Black Workers in Savannah
The Savannah Metropolitan area, which includes Bryan County, aren’t just random dots on the map. These are communities with deep Black working-class roots. The region has one of the highest percentages of Black residents in Georgia at nearly 50%, and Black workers are strongly represented in construction, manufacturing, and the trades.
Now look at the numbers: the latest Labor Department data show Black unemployment nationally has surged to 7.5% in July, up from 6.1% a year ago, with Black women hit especially hard. Economists warn this is the “canary in the coal mine” of a weakening labor market, because Black workers are often the first to feel downturns.
For Savannah, that’s not an abstract warning. It means the very communities promised good-paying jobs are instead watching subcontractors fly in exploitable labor while local workers fall further behind.
So when Democratic officials wag their fingers at ICE for arresting hundreds of visa violators, they’re not standing up for “workers.” They’re standing against Black and other American workers in Georgia — the very people locked out of jobs they were promised.
Local unions already raised alarms back in March about being shut out of Hyundai projects. Barry Zeigler, business manager of the Local 188 Plumbers and Pipefitters Union, complained that “we haven’t been able to get our local contractors out there to get some work because we don’t work the undocumented workers. We work American workers.”
That’s not solidarity. That’s not equity. That’s anti-American working class warfare.
Democrats’ Double Game
Read the statements from Georgia Democrats after the raid:
Rep. Sam Park framed it as an “attack on immigrant communities.”
Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes fumed that enforcing visa law might scare off other countries from investing in Georgia—a sharp contrast to her own January op-ed, where she urged Democrats to win back working-class voters by returning to their roots as the party of American workers and families.
A chorus of 36 Democratic caucus members cosigned a statement that these were the “very people building our clean energy future.”
Not one of them inquired further regarding the obvious: what about the Georgians who were promised these jobs? What about the families in Savannah who watched their job prospects vanish so that Hyundai could import an underclass of exploitable workers?
Even Georgia AFL-CIO—the state’s American labor federation—parroted the same talking points, issuing a statement condemning ICE and standing with illegal labor instead of the Georgians they exist to represent. It’s solidarity upside down.
A Different Kind of Leadership
Contrast those statements with the response from Rep. Soo Hong, one of the first Korean American women elected to the Georgia General Assembly. Hong struck a far more responsible tone:
“Georgia must remain committed to the rule of law and safe work environments, and my understanding is that this action followed a criminal investigation into unlawful employment practices and was carried out under a judge-signed warrant.”
She acknowledged the importance of Georgia’s partnership with Korean companies but drew a clear line: compliance with U.S. law is non-negotiable.
“Businesses operating here must follow the law—just as Koreans expect of foreign companies in their own country.”
Hong also expressed concern for any individuals lawfully present who may have been detained, pledging to continue working for answers. That’s what accountability looks like—recognizing the value of international partnerships without selling out the American working class.
The Big Picture
The Democratic response to this corporate collusion is shameful and does not reflect compassion for those they were elected to represent. Americans are being taxed to subsidize foreign conglomerates, only to be pushed out of the workforce in their own backyard. Georgians are being told to be quiet while their livelihoods are undercut and anyone who dares to support enforcement of immigration law is smeared as anti-worker.
But siding with visa fraud and exploitable fly-in labor is not pro-worker—it’s pro-corporation, pro-exploitation, and anti–American working class. The raid exposed not just Hyundai’s labor model, but a political failure: billions in subsidies for jobs Georgians never got.
Democrats continue to fail their own base. A May Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll found that only 35% of Georgia voters view the party favorably—the lowest rating in nearly a decade. Even among Black voters, support is shaky, and more than one-third of liberal voters report a negative perception of the party. Charlie Bailey, recently elected as the new chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia, admitted it plainly: “People in our base have lost faith in our ability to fight for them.”
If Democrats want to call themselves the party of working people, they should start by standing with the actual Georgians who were promised those jobs—not with billion-dollar conglomerates and the foreign governments that defend them. Until then, it’s clear the fight for Georgia’s workers won’t be led by Georgia Democrats.