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I believe there are two mostly unrelated stories: 1. Many of the construction workers were illegal immigrants. 2. When you are building a factory, you need to
by jltsiren 1y ago
I believe there are two mostly unrelated stories:
1. Many of the construction workers were illegal immigrants.
2. When you are building a factory, you need to send engineers who are already familiar with your technology for various supervisory, training, and consulting tasks. It looks like the US does not have an appropriate visa category for such engineers, at least according to the current interpretation.
The second story is the interesting one, as it reveals a conflict between American policy goals. The US wants to encourage foreign companies to invest in manufacturing in the US, but it's unwilling to change the immigration laws or interpret the existing laws to expedite that.
Edit: L-1B is supposed to be the right visa, but the application process with petitions and interviews is too cumbersome in practice.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- tripletao 1y agoI believe you're correct. When foreign experts visit temporarily to transfer technology to a new site, there's no bright line between the "non-working" business activities permitted by a B visa or ESTA and those requiring H or L visas. If the DHS thought Hyundai had pushed that line too far, then they could have subpoenaed their records, and perhaps ultimately settled the case with a fine and a promise to comply with the clarified standard in future. That would all have been normal. They instead chose to lock up random employees "working" in a way their employer had probably assured them (rightly or wrongly) was lawful. That's not normal. The USA is a sovereign country, so it can impose whatever immigration policy it wants. No one should be surprised when foreign multinationals adjust their investment decisions accordingly though, or when American staff abroad face reciprocally unpleasant treatment.