The recent raid on a Hyundai plant being constructed in southern Georgia has served to expose the contradictions within the rhetoric of the American bourgeois regime. On September 4th, 475 workers were arrested on allegations that they were in the country illegally or did not have the proper documentation to work there. The raid occurred at a plant jointly owned by Hyundai and LG, which is being built for the purpose of manufacturing batteries for electric vehicles. The plant was part of an investment of over $12 billion dollars, and it is estimated that by 2031 over 8,000 workers will be employed there.

Of the 475 workers arrested, 316 were South Korean nationals, contracted by Hyundai to do the complex work of installing and testing the machinery used for the manufacturing of the batteries. It was said by an attorney representing some of the workers who were detained that it would take an American 2 to 3 years of living in South Korea to learn the required skills to do this work.

Soon after the raid, President Donald Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to say that foreign companies who are investing in American manufacturing are welcome to bring over their skilled workers to train Americans to create the complex products that are now mostly made in other countries. He said further that he didn’t “want to frighten off or disincentivize investment into America by outside countries or companies…”. This was likely in response to statements that the raid could potentially deter future investment by South Korean companies, with the South Korean president Lee Jae Myung calling the raid “bewildering”.

It has previously been the accepted practice for South Korean companies to send workers to the U.S. for the purpose of establishing factories under B-1 travel visas, due to the limit on the number of H1B foreign professional work visas that are issued each year. 140 of the South Korean workers who were detained were in the U.S. under B-1 visas, which, they were told by an “authoritative interpretation”, would allow them to install and test equipment.

This mutually understood interpretation of the nature and limits of the B-1 visas, was likely undermined by the need of immigration officials to ramp up the number of arrests and deportations, in order to achieve Trump’s supposed goal of deporting 15 to 20 million immigrants. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller has called for daily arrests quotas of 3,000. In opposition to the claim by South Korean officials that they had been assured that the B-1 visas would allow South Koreans to work in the U.S., American immigration officials maintain that they strictly enforced the law.

Despite the fantastic claims made by the bourgeois on social media, and the footage of ICE shock troops playing constantly on the news, the number of daily arrests and deportations remain comparable to those from the previous administration. Even still, Republican officials will continue to claim that they are the ones doing the work of saving the American worker from the crushing hand of global competition. The events of September 4th demonstrate the impossibility of balancing actions which fulfill the isolationist rhetoric of Trump’s campaign promises, with the reality of a capitalist economy which is by necessity a global phenomenon. This did not come as a surprise to us Marxists, who realize that once the limits of accumulation have been reached within a country’s borders, Capital must look elsewhere to quench its undying thirst for profits.

Every day, the vision of a reinvigorated American manufacturing, protected by tariffs, and staffed by a well compensated and complacent native workforce, is proving to be more like a mirage. What is revealed behind the misty veil of bourgeois propaganda is a dying imperialism, starved of surplus value, and strangled by contradictions which at every move grow even tighter. The tariffs which were put in place for the purpose of restoring and protecting American jobs, are making the construction of the new plants necessary to achieve this purpose prohibitively expensive. According to a survey of the Associated General Contractors of America, over 40 percent of contractors included in the survey have had jobs delayed or cancelled due to increasing costs. According to Ken Simonson, the chief economist of the AGCA, It is unlikely that any amount of investment by foreign companies like Hyundai could counteract this, even assuming that they aren’t dissuaded from investing in the first place by the risk of having their employees rounded up into detention centers.

The claim of the Republicans, and the hope of all those proletarians who have been shackled to the right wing of the representatives of capital, is that by removing from the country more easily exploited undocumented workers, employers will be forced to pay native-born workers a “fair wage”. In reality they are only continuing the work of maintaining the reserve army of labor, according to the needs of capital for more or less workers. Any average pay increase resulting from the shrinking of the supply of labor is quickly overshadowed by rising costs of living – precipitated by tariffs – and the fall in the value of the dollar.

Accordingly, we find a proletariat in no better shape than it was under Biden. Trump’s approval rating has plummeted, and it is likely that in 2028 the Democrats will return to power, but the workers have nothing to hope for in a change of command. The continued descent into poverty, strife, and global war, is not the product of the decisions of individual policy-makers, but rather the predictable outcome of the continuation of a rotten system, built on exploitation, and destined for the garbage can of history. We urge all workers to reject subordinating themselves to the national interest and instead act on the principles of international solidarity. The only path forward is the path of class struggle and ultimately proletarian revolution.