The U.S. State Department has reissued work visas for some of the South Korean workers ejected from a Hyundai Motor Co.-LG Energy Solution Ltd. battery plant during an immigration raid in early September. Some have returned to work in the U.S., according to The New York Times.

In a move aimed at undoing the political uproar created by the raid, about 180 people who were in the United States on B-1 business visas have had them restored, said Kim Min-su, who was among those detained, the Times reported. 

At least 30 of those workers have gone back to the battery plant, said Kim, and the ex-detainees are preparing a class-action lawsuit against U.S. immigration authorities over their detention, which they claim was illegal because they had valid work visas. They also claim the detention center to which they were sent was “unsanitary.”

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South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that U.S. officials had contacted the former detainees individually about their visa renewals and taken steps to ensure that no adverse information related to the Georgia operation remained on their records. 

The South Korean workers who had been detained flew home on September 12 after the two countries negotiated their departure.

U.S. officials agreed to allow the workers to return later, but many workers said they did not want to return. The raid brought construction to a halt at the factory for some time, though Hyundai said the plant was still on track to open in the first half of 2026.