Plus: JPMorgan calls Epstein relationship ‘a mistake’; ‘Face the Nation’ will no longer edit interviews.
On Thursday, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials arrested nearly 500 people, most of them South Korean nationals, at a Georgia plant jointly owned by Hyundai and LG Energy Solution. Both companies are based in South Korea.
However, most of the workers seized in the raid were not employees of either company, but rather subcontractors. No Hyundai workers were arrested and only 47 LG Energy Solution employees were. The remainder were subcontractors hired to finish building the sprawling plant near Savannah, Georgia. The South Koreans are in the process of being voluntarily repatriated.
The Trump administration has made it clear this action is just the beginning of future enforcement, even as it strongly encourages foreign companies to invest in manufacturing in the United States.
“Your Investments are welcome, and we encourage you to LEGALLY bring your very smart people, with great technical talent, to build World Class products, and we will make it quickly and legally possible for you to do so,” President Donald Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “What we ask in return is that you hire and train American Workers.”
ICE officials said some of the workers had overstayed visas or did not have the correct work permits.
“Hyundai is committed to full compliance with all laws and regulations in every market where we operate,” the car manufacturer said in a statement. “This includes employment verification requirements and immigration laws. We expect the same commitment from all our partners, suppliers, contractors, and subcontractors.”
“Hyundai has zero tolerance for those who don’t follow the law,” the statement added. “As we continue to invest in American manufacturing and create thousands of jobs, we will do so in full accordance with U.S. law and in a manner that reflects our values of treating all people with dignity and respect.”
Why it matters: The compliance, public affairs and employee communications issues raised here are vast. However, those relating to public relations are just as complex.
No Hyundai employees were arrested, but Hyundai appears in every headline about the raid, by virtue of the fact that the carmaker is more well-known than its joint owner LG Energy Solution. It’s the double-edged sword of PR: the more well-known you are, the more you’ll appear in headlines, for better and worse. Hyundai will now become the face of this immigration issue, though it was not directly implicated in wrongdoing.
Nonetheless, as joint-owner of the plant, it is responsible for its construction and operation, and their statement took full responsibility and struck the right notes for placating the administration. In addition to restating its commitment to following the law, it also notes the concrete action it will take – the site will now be overseen by Hyundai’s North American chief manufacturing officer to review supplier and subcontractor compliance.
Only one portion of a sentence conveys concern for the treatment of workers: “…in a manner that reflects our values of treating all people with dignity and respect.”
Hyundai was the first international corporation to face such a challenge, but it won’t be the last. Huddle with legal and operations today. Understand your exposure, not just from within the company but from partners. And get those statements ready.
Editor’s Top Reads:
- The most damning headline imaginable ran splashed across the front page of the New York Times this morning: “How JPMorgan Enabled the Crimes of Jeffrey Epstein,” complete with imagery of one of the bank’s checks placed over Epstein’s eyes. The lengthy investigation calls the late, convicted sex trafficker a “treasured client” of the bank, even as employees raised red flags over money laundering and payments to his victims. JPMorgan issued an unusually unequivocal and full-throated apology in the Times piece. Spokesperson Joseph Evangelisti called the relationship with Epstein “a mistake and in hindsight we regret it, but we did not help him commit his heinous crimes.” Evangelisti added, “We would never have continued to do business with him if we believed he was engaged in an ongoing sex trafficking operation.” While the statement comes out strongly taking ownership of the mistake, it misses the central thrust of the piece: the bank did know, or should have known, that Epstein was involved in illicit activity over a period of years. Given all the furor over Epstein at the moment, this isn’t the kind of crisis that will disappear overnight. Get ready for the Congressional hearing.
- CBS Sunday show “Face the Nation” will no longer edit interviews with its guests, only airing them live or live-to-tape. The move comes after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem complained the show had edited out her comments about Kilmar Abrego Garcia. CBS said the decision came in response to “audience feedback.” From a PR perspective, having an unedited chance to push your talking points is a boon. But it will reduce long-form interviews that are then condensed for audiences, which could reduce the chance for in-depth discussions on complex topics.
- Anthropic, the maker of AI bot Claude, has agreed to pay $1.5 billion to a group of book authors whose workers were obtained from pirate websites and used to train the model. Additionally, the training sets will be deleted from the LLM. While a judge had previously said that training the bot on the books was considered fair use under the law, the sticking point was that Anthropic obtained the books not through legally, publicly available means, but rather through pirate websites. Anthropic denies wrongdoing and said it did not use the pirated data to train its LLM but rather purchased copies of the books for training purposes. Anthropic will pay $3,000, plus interest, for each pirated work. We’re still in the early days of the coming copyright wars over AI training materials, but this case shows there are clear boundaries – and there are still clear risks over using LLMs that may be trained on dodgy data.
Allison Carter is editorial director of PR Daily and Ragan.com. Follow her on LinkedIn.
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