South Korean Staff Start Returning To U.S. After ICE Raid

Completely happy Thursday! It is October 2, 2025, and that is The Morning Shift — your each day roundup of the highest automotive headlines from around the globe, in a single place. That is the place you will discover an important tales which are shaping the way in which Individuals drive and get round.

On this morning’s version, we’re wanting on the return of LG’s South Korean employees to the U.S., in addition to GM’s newest employee furlough. We’ll additionally have a look at Elon Musk’s incomprehensible and ever-increasing wealth, and Rivian’s superb fiscal quarter.

Final month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained 300 South Korean employees at a Hyundai/LG battery plant in Georgia. These employees shortly and understandably received the hell out of Dodge, but it surely appears they’re now allowed again within the nation. From Bloomberg:

LG Power Answer Ltd. will begin sending employees from South Korea again to the US for important enterprise journeys lower than a month after lots of of workers have been detained in a visa crackdown.

Journeys will restart after the Chuseok vacation, which wraps up on the finish of subsequent week, LG Power mentioned in a press release Thursday.

“This choice follows affirmation from the US-Korea working group that holders of short-term industrial (B-1) visas and Digital System for Journey Authorization (ESTA) are permitted to carry out gear set up, inspection, and upkeep at our US factories,” the assertion mentioned.

…

On Tuesday, Washington and Seoul held an inaugural assembly of their Enterprise Journey and Visa working group in Washington as a part of efforts to ascertain readability within the US work visa system. Many of the detained employees have been on B-1 visas or underneath a 90-day visa waiver program generally known as ESTA, which does not enable for employment however which additionally would not make clear the scope of enterprise allowed.

Throughout the assembly, the US reaffirmed that South Korean corporations can use B-1 visas and ESTA for set up, service and restore of apparatus, and the 2 international locations agreed to launch a Korea investor desk on the US embassy in Seoul to deal with employment points, Seoul’s International Ministry mentioned.

After all, the employees all had visas once they have been detained, and that did not cease ICE from cuffing first and asking questions later. It stays to be seen what number of of these Hyundai/LG employees even have any curiosity in setting foot on U.S. soil as soon as once more. I might guess only a few wish to come again.

Common Motors has been retooling its Fairfax Meeting manufacturing unit in Kansas to provide the Chevy Bolt and Equinox, with the promise to employees that the manufacturing unit would spin up manufacturing fairly quickly. Now, GM is strolling again that promise, and ready to see what demand appears to be like like earlier than it provides a second shift — leaving 900 employees out within the chilly. From the Detroit Free Press:

Common Motors is inserting 900 employees on indefinite layoff at its the Fairfax Meeting plant in Kansas, the corporate instructed the Detroit Free Press on Oct. 1, because it retools the plant for manufacturing of the gas-powered Equinox. These workers have been positioned on non permanent layoff as of Sept. 4.

Staff with the best seniority may have the chance to return sooner because the plant gears up for manufacturing of the brand new Chevrolet Bolt. GM mentioned there may be not a present time-frame for when that return would happen or what number of workers shall be wanted to fulfill these manufacturing wants.

…

Fairfax Meeting, in Kansas Metropolis, Kansas, which ended manufacturing earlier this 12 months of the Cadillac XT4 and the Chevrolet Malibu, mentioned on Sept. 4 that it’s not instantly planning so as to add a second shift as soon as building ramps up for the Bolt.

I am certain the United Auto Staff may have one thing to say about this indefinite furlough, and it in all probability will not be wildly enthusiastic. Usually unions like their members to maintain getting paid.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, is the world’s richest individual. He’s unfathomably rich, and simply yesterday his web value crested $500 billion. That is $500,000,000,000, in case you needed to rely the zeroes. From Reuters:

Elon Musk on Wednesday turned the primary individual to surpass $500 billion in web value, powered by a rebound in Tesla’s share value this 12 months and swelling valuations of his different tech ventures.

The milestone comes slightly below a 12 months after Musk’s web value crossed $400 billion and underscores his lead because the world’s richest individual.

Musk’s fortune briefly hit $500 billion on Wednesday, earlier than settling at $499.1 billion at 5 p.m. ET, in keeping with Forbes’ billionaires index.

His wealth is tied carefully to his about 12% stake in Tesla, the world’s most useful automaker. The electrical-vehicle maker’s inventory has climbed about 14% to date this 12 months after a uneven begin.

Do not forget that time Musk promised to finish world starvation if anybody might give him a plan that value $6 billion, solely to then flip round and easily not do this? Do not forget that if you purchase a Tesla, spend your money at a Supercharger, or pay for a subscription service or restore, that is the place your cash goes.

Rivian has been — and that is an trade time period — going by it not too long ago. The corporate makes automobiles which are merely unimaginable, but it surely by no means appears to be sufficient to maintain the corporate in good monetary standing. Final quarter, Rivian rode the tax-credit-expiry panic-buying to unexpectedly excessive gross sales, however even that is not sufficient to spice up its annual gross sales estimates for 2025 within the face of the Trump administration. From Reuters:

Rivian Automotive lowered the midpoint of its annual deliveries forecast vary on Thursday because the EV-maker braces for an unsure few quarters because of the lapse of federal tax credit, sending its shares down greater than 7% in early buying and selling.

Regardless of reporting an almost 32% bounce in deliveries, Rivian and the electric-vehicle trade face a cloudy outlook after the U.S. Congress, by sweeping laws, moved to abolish a $7,500 tax credit score on leasing that EV makers had lengthy relied on to bolster gross sales.

…

The corporate delivered 13,201 automobiles within the third quarter, in contrast with an estimate of 12,690 automobiles, in keeping with analysts polled by Seen Alpha.

I actually hope that Rivian could make this work, as a result of I need the corporate to succeed. Automobiles this good deserve an actual shot on the planet, and I am all the time excited to see a Rivian out on the streets.

Completely happy birthday to Jalopnik’s resident child, Andy. Your current is that I am posting this picture moderately than any of the Joker edits.

One other that is on the actual, literal radio. Thanks, Eva Walker.