Tag: immigration

In the U.S. the activists would claim this is cruel and the person should be allowed to stay because it was just minor crimes. It is good to see the ROK is upholding their immigration laws:

 A Seoul court has upheld an earlier decision by the justice ministry to deny naturalization to a foreign national over his past criminal record.

According to legal sources Sunday, the Seoul Administrative Court dismissed a lawsuit filed by the foreigner, who had sought to overturn the ministry’s rejection of his naturalization application.

The applicant, whose nationality was not disclosed, had applied for a South Korean passport after marrying a South Korean citizen. After the couple divorced, the legal basis for his application changed, and the ministry rejected the request, citing his criminal record.

The ministry ruled that the person failed to meet the “good conduct” requirement under the Nationality Act. The foreigner was once referred to juvenile protection proceedings for aggravated theft and was also fined for driving without a license.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks a subcontractor was trying to skirt US immigration laws. With ICE strictly enforcing immigration laws companies need to do their due diligence to comply with them:

Nearly 500 people were arrested as part of an immigration raid at a Hyundai Motor battery plant under construction in Georgia as part of a criminal investigation into employment practices at the site, a Homeland Security official said Friday.

The operation Thursday resulted in the arrest of 475 individuals. More than 300 were South Korean nationals, according to an official from the country.

Those arrested had illegally crossed the border, entered through a visa waiver program that prohibited them from working or had overstayed their visas, Steven Schrank, a special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Atlant a, said at a press conference Friday morning.

“This was the largest single site enforcement operation in the history of Homeland Security investigations,” Schrank said.

Wall Street Journal

You can read more at the link, but instead of getting an H1B visa the workers had B1 visas. These visas are for attending business meetings not construction work. The subcontractor probably got their workers into the U.S. using the B1 visa because H1Bs are more complicated and highly scrutinized since you have to show an American can’t do the work.

What would Korea do if 300 Americans showed up on a wrong visa and began constructing a building in Seoul? They would probably have the same reaction to what is happening in Georgia.

What this article is not telling readers is that many of the Korean-American owned businesses in LA’s Koreatown use illegal immigrant labor, especially from Latin-American countries. This is the primary reason the Korean American Federation is speaking out against the ICE raids:

US federal immigration authorities conducted a series of coordinated enforcement operations across Los Angeles on Friday, including in neighborhoods with a high concentration of Korean American-owned businesses. The move has raised concerns within the local Korean diaspora.

The raids reportedly targeted areas in downtown Los Angeles’ fashion district, commonly referred to as the “Jobber Market,” where several Korean American-run wholesale clothing stores are located.

In a statement released the same day, the Korean American Federation of Los Angeles condemned the enforcement actions, describing them as “unilateral and heavy-handed.”

“These actions by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) disregard proper legal procedures,” the organization said. “We urgently call on our local elected officials to take action and provide solutions to this crisis. In addition, we will work closely with local organizations to ensure that no individuals are unjustly harmed.”

“Even individuals who struggle with English or are unable to provide identification immediately are reportedly being arrested or detained first,” the organization added. “This has caused significant harm and confusion, not only among Korean nationals but also among local residents.”

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but what do ROK Heads think would happen in Korea if a bunch of Americans started attacking Korean law enforcement while waving U.S. flags?

As we have seen with just about every immigration case the media brings up there is always more to the story they leave out. In this case it is hard to say what happened, but it appears he may have had a visa to be a researcher at Ohio State University and then took a job to teach at the University of Houston instead which might have been in violation of his visa:

As the second Trump administration expelled illegal immigrants, a Korean scientist, a professor at an American university, suddenly canceled his visa and left for Korea.

U.S. media, including the University Herald, the Houston Chronicle and the Daily Cougar, reported on the 15th (local time) that Korean assistant professor Cho Hyung-sun, who works at the University of Houston’s mathematics department, is preparing to leave for Korea after her visa was abruptly canceled. Jeon served as a postdoctoral researcher at Ohio State University in the U.S. from September 2022 to June 2024, and began teaching as an assistant professor at Houston University last fall.

Jeon is known to have been notified of the cancellation of his visa because he is working on a doctoral program at another institution. He was virtually kicked out after failing to finish the course he was in charge of this semester to go back to Korea and solve his identity problem.

Maeil Business Newspaper

You can read more at the link, but this guy appears to be handling things correctly by going back to Korea and reapplying for the appropriate visa to teach at the University of Houston. It sounds like a lot of visa holders had been able to cut corners for a long time in regards to what their visas could be used for and ICE is now cracking down on it. Anyone that has a visa in the U.S. should fully understand what their allows them to do and comply by it because clearly ICE is strictly enforcing immigration laws now.

I wonder if the United States is going to see a reduction in pregnant Korean women coming to give birth so their sons can get American citizenship in order to avoid the ROK’s mandatory service requirement?