Homeland Security Investigations announced a massive raid at a Hyundai plant in Georgia that resulted in the arrest of hundreds of individuals.

HSI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and other federal agencies participated in an operation on Thursday into “unlawful employment practices and other serious federal crimes.”

‘As of today, it is our understanding that none of those detained is directly employed by Hyundai Motor Company.’

Federal law enforcement agents arrested 475 individuals who were “illegally present in the United States or in violation of their presence in the United States,” according to Steven Schrank, a special agent in charge of HSI for Georgia and Alabama.

“Yesterday, Homeland Security Investigations, in coordination with our law enforcement partners, executed a judicial search warrant as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into allegations of unlawful employment practices and serious federal crimes,” Schrank stated during a press conference on Friday.

“This was not an immigration operation where agents went into the premises, rounded up folks, and put them on buses,” he continued. “This has been a multi-month criminal investigation where we have developed evidence, conducted interviews, gathered documents, and presented that evidence to the court in order to obtain a judicial search warrant.”

He stated that the arrested individuals, the majority of whom were South Korean nationals, were “working unlawfully.” Schrank explained that some of these individuals had either crossed the border illegally, overstayed their visas, or entered the country through visa waivers but were not permitted to work.

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Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Lee Jaewoong, a spokesman for South Korea’s Foreign Ministry, stated Friday, “The economic activities of our investment companies and the rights and interests of our citizens must not be unjustly violated during U.S. law enforcement proceedings.”

The raided facility was a construction site for HL-GA Battery Company, a joint venture between Hyundai and LG Energy Solution. This plant will supply batteries to the nearby Hyundai electric vehicle manufacturing plant.

The arrested individuals worked for “a variety of different companies that were on the site.” Those determined to be illegally in the U.S. were turned over to ICE custody, according to Schrank, who called the raid “the largest single-site enforcement operation” in HSI’s history.

No criminal charges were announced as of Friday.

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Photographer: Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Hyundai Motor Company told Blaze News, “We are aware of the recent incident at the HL-GA Battery Company construction site in Bryan County, Georgia. We are closely monitoring the situation and working to understand the specific circumstances.”

“As of today, it is our understanding that none of those detained is directly employed by Hyundai Motor Company. We prioritize the safety and well-being of everyone working at the site and comply with all laws and regulations wherever we operate,” the statement added.

Blaze News contacted HL-GA Battery Company for comment.

Mary Beth Kennedy, senior public relations specialist with the HL-GA Battery Company, previously told WSAV-TV, “HL-GA Battery Company is cooperating fully with the appropriate authorities regarding activity at our construction site. To assist their work, we have paused construction. We do not have further details at this time.”

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As has been the case since Miss United States Lindsey Langston came forward to accuse Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) of making threats of violence and revenge porn after their breakup, the hearing about her petition for a restraining order against him was filled with drama.

Langston testified at Columbia County Courthouse on Friday morning about her growing concerns about Mills' mental health at the tail end of their three-year relationship as well as her increasing terror afterward on account of his behavior. According to Langston, Mills repeatedly contacted her after the breakup in February, pleading with her to reconcile and progressively threatening greater and greater harm to himself and others if she did not agree.

'I'm up against this person who is intimidating, and I don't know what to do.'

Langston testified that in March he threatened to commit suicide if she would not take him back.

Despite these alleged alarming comments, Langston said she continued to speak with Mills, even mentioning to him in late April or early May that she was struggling with an IRS- and tax-related problem, though she noted that she eventually had to ask him to stop contacting her.

Sometime in May, she began ignoring his messages, she said, and by late May, she started blocking him on her phone and social media accounts. However, she said the messages continued — and that they promised to harm her future love interests and even to share revenge porn with them or with the Miss United States organization.

Blaze News previously viewed screenshots of those messages, some or all of which were then introduced into evidence on Friday. They include:

• "You want to date or be with someone else. Be my guest. But they need to know well in advance that if we cross paths, I don’t care this week, this month, or this decade. They better damn well know it’s coming every time."
• "May want to tell every guy you date that if we run into each other at any point. Strap up cowboy."
• "I can send him a few videos of you as well," followed by "Oh, I still have them."

Messages that she received in June were so specific that she worried he was somehow monitoring her activities in Columbia County, she told the court.

Langston previously indicated to Blaze News that on June 12 she told him once and for all to leave her alone, and her attorney, Bobi J. Frank, noted at the hearing on Friday that Langston asked him "10, 11, 12 times" to stay away.

Between the escalating rhetoric and his previous boasts about engaging in violence, Langston testified that she felt she had no choice but to involve law enforcement.

"I'm up against this person who is intimidating," she said through tears on the stand, "and I don't know what to do."

"I thought I could handle this, and I can't. I can't handle it by myself. Please help me. Someone please help me because I don't know what to do, and I'm scared," she added.

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Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc./Getty Images

When it was Mills' turn to take the stand, he did not deny contacting Langston after their breakup, noting that they had broken up and reconciled before and that he believed that they were on a path toward reconciliation once again. When his attorney, Aaron Delgado, asked about the messages that Langston found worrisome, Mills seemed to suggest that they were inside jokes between two Southerners raised in the "country."

"I grew up in the country," Mills said. "You know, I grew up hunting and fishing in Perry and Mayo and things like that. We grew up with subsequently the same backgrounds. ... We used to talk about how country folk are a little bit different than those up North."

He indicated that he was merely adopting her type of "voice" and language.

Mills at first said his last conversation with Langston 'was around the June 12th time frame,' but when Delgado pressed further, asking whether he had any contact with Langston after that point, Mills equivocated.

As far as the messages seemingly directed at a new man in Langston's life, Mills said they were responses to threats that the man had first given about him. "She even sent me a text that was cropped that just said, 'Good luck,' saying that this was his response," Mills asserted.

Langston testified Friday that while she had gone on dates, she had not been involved in another relationship after Mills.

Mills further stated that while Langston had sent him explicit videos of herself during their relationship — a fact that Langston confirmed during cross-examination — he had deleted those videos and that the phone on which he had received them was later damaged. He denied ever contacting the Miss United States organization or the county GOP group of which Langston is a member about the explicit photos and videos.

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Photo courtesy of Lake City Reporter

Mills, who is still believed to be married to Rana Al Saadi despite reportedly telling Langston in 2024 that his divorce had been finalized, gave an ambiguous answer when Delgado asked him to pinpoint the last time he had contacted Langston.

Mills at first said his last conversation with Langston "was around the June 12th time frame," but when Delgado pressed further, asking whether he had any contact with Langston after that point, Mills equivocated. "No, sir, only to the fact of I have heard ..." Mills began before he was cut off multiple times by Frank, Judge Fred Koberlein, and Delgado that he was engaging in hearsay.

At the prompting of Judge Koberlein, Delgado eventually redirected the line of questioning, and Mills' testimony concluded shortly thereafter.

Langston had testified earlier that after she contacted law enforcement and the media, Mills, his current girlfriend, and his chief of staff sent her a flurry of messages and phone calls, begging her to retract her story. She told Blaze News on August 5, the day our story on the accusations broke, about this alleged harassment.

The hearing Friday extended well beyond the time allotted, with other critical procedures, including cross-examination of Mills and closing statements, left undone. After both attorneys petitioned for more time, Judge Koberlein suspended the hearing, demanding that by 4 p.m. Friday they agree upon another date and time to continue the proceedings.

After the court was recessed, Mills promised the gaggle of reporters in attendance, including Steve Baker of Blaze News, that he would address them outside the courthouse, but he never appeared, instead exiting the building from another door.

Delgado did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News, and Frank declined to give one.

The court had previously dismissed Langston's emergency petition for a restraining order. As of the time of this writing, no follow-up hearing has been scheduled.

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New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) was expected to make an "important campaign announcement" on Friday afternoon, which further fueled speculation that he was considering ending his re-election campaign.

A report from the New York Times, citing anonymous sources, claimed Adams may soon leave the race to pursue a position with President Donald Trump's administration as the ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

'Those reports are wrong; I'm not.'

Adams held the press conference outside Gracie Mansion on Friday afternoon. He stood behind a sign that read "Re-elect Eric" to announce that he has no plans to withdraw from the race.

"This polo shirt that I'm wearing that says, 'Eric Adams, Mayor of the City of New York,' I'm gonna wear that for another four years," he declared.

"I have two spoiled brats running for mayor," Adams said, presumably referring to Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo. "They were born with silver spoons in their mouths, not like working-class New Yorkers. I'm a working-class New Yorker. They are not like us. They've never had to fight. They never had to struggle. They never had to go through difficult times like you and I had to go through."

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Democratic mayoral nominee and state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

He rejected reports claiming that he has plans to travel to Washington, D.C., on Monday.

"Those reports are wrong; I'm not. I'll be moving throughout this city, in the five boroughs that made me mayor in the first place," he continued. "I'm running for re-election."

Adams left the press conference without taking questions from reporters.

An Adams spokesperson previously denied the Times' rumors in a statement to Newsmax on Friday ahead of the scheduled announcement.

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Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

"Serving New Yorkers as their mayor is the only job I've ever wanted," the statement read. "I'm proud of the progress we've made lowering crime, improving schools, building housing, and cutting costs for working families — and I remain the best person to lead this city forward."

"While I will always listen if called to serve our country, no formal offers have been made. I am still running for re-election, and my full focus is on the safety and quality of life of every New Yorker," the statement added.

Trump has stated that he would like to see two mayoral candidates drop out of the race to increase the chances of beating Mamdani, a Democratic front-runner. Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa and disgraced former Governor Cuomo (D) also remain in the race.

"I don't like to see a communist become mayor, I will tell you that," Trump said of Mamdani.

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