Transcript of Feds Eye More Cities, Hyundai Plant Raid, Influential Pastor

South Korea wants answers after an immigration raid here in the US.

The raid netted hundreds of workers at a site of a plant that Hyundai and a battery maker are building in Georgia. I'm Scott Simon.

And I'm Ayesha Rosco. It's up first from NPR News. The raid near Savannah comes as the administration says it wants to send more National Guard to more cities, sighting public safety.

But NPR has learned that ICE wants Pentagon on support for operations in one of those target cities. We have the latest from Chicago as well as on that Savannah raid.

Here in DC, growing influence for a pastor from rural Idaho. Why Doug Wilson has the administration's ear. So stay with us. We have the news you need to start your weekend.

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First to Chicago, President Trump is ramping up his threats to send the National Guard there, even after a federal judge said his use of troops in Los Angeles back in June was illegal.

Chicago is just one of several major cities alongside the likes of Baltimore and New Orleans, to which Trump says he would deploy the Guard for public safety safety, despite data showing that crime is down in those cities. Npr's Kat Lonsdorff is in Chicago and joins us now. Kat, thanks for being with us.

Hey, good morning.

What do we know now whether or not the President is going to deploy the National Guard there?

Well, Trump has said that he will, but hasn't been specific about a time frame. Here he is earlier this week at a press conference talking about Chicago.

Well, we're going in. I didn't say when we're going in. When you lose, look, I have an obligation. This isn't a political thing. I have an obligation.

Since then, an official has confirmed to NPR that the Department of Homeland Security has requested assistance from the Pentagon for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, in the Chicago Metropolitan area. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Ice and the National Guard are different. The Guard is part of the military. Ice is federal law enforcement. But in DC, for example, Trump's deployment of the National Guard came with a larger presence from ICE, too. Trump maintains that the National Guard would be sent here for public safety. You heard him there saying that this wouldn't be a political move. He sees it as an obligation. But generally, the National Guard is not used for policing. They can't make arrests or anything like that. In DC, they've been patrolling federal property and picking up trash, that thing.

Elected officials in Chicago are not in line with this, are they?

No. Governor J. B. Pritzker, a Democrat and a big opponent of Trump, has come out strongly against it. In a statement, he said, quote, None of this is about fighting crime making Chicago safer. And many other local politicians here, senators, aldermen, have said similar things. Democratic lawmakers in many other cities, Baltimore, for example, have said they plan to push back if Trump follows through with his threats. In Louisiana, though, Republican governor Jeff Landry says he would welcome the troops if Trump sent them to New Orleans. And Trump himself has recently made crime an even bigger part of his political agenda, hoping that voters see big city crime as a major problem. And he thinks He seems to think that his crackdown on it, while mostly performative, will play out well for Republicans in the midterms next year.

And what's the latest on the legal challenges?

Well, earlier this week, a federal judge in California ruled that Trump's deployment of the National Guard there in LA in June violated a federal law that limits the use of the military for domestic law enforcement. But that ruling, which the Trump administration can appeal, only applies in California. In DC, where the National Guard has been deployed for about a month, Trump has the authority to do so because of what's called the Home Rule Act that gives him command of DC's National Guard, but that, too, doesn't apply to these other cities. I'll note that even in DC, DC's attorney general still sued the Trump administration on Thursday over that deployment, saying it's illegal. There are times when the National Guard can legally be used in civilian law enforcement, but generally speaking, it has to be requested by each state's governor. Many experts say that what we're seeing here with it being potentially forced on states, this unchartet territory, and it'll almost certainly lead to a lot more litigation.

And Piers Kat Lonsdorff in Chicago. Kat, thanks so much for being with us.

Thank you.

Hundreds of workers were arrested by immigration authorities at a Hyundai plant near Savannah, Georgia this week.

Agents detained nearly 500 people in what Homeland Security is calling the largest immigration enforcement operation at a single site in US history. Our immigration correspondent, Jasmine Garce, joins us. Jasmine, thanks for being with us. Hi, Scott. What do we know about this large operation?

So the raid happened in Elabel, Georgia, which is right by Savannah, at a construction site for an electrical vehicle battery plant, which is co-owned by LG Energy Solution and the Hyundai Motor Group. It involved several law enforcement agencies. Homeland Security says this was a month's long investigation, and it culminated with a search warrant. They arrested 475 people, most of whom are South Korean citizens. Homeland Security says the workers detained were in the US illegally or working at the site unlawfully. They said some overstate their visas, others unlawfully cross the border. Here's Special Agent Stephen Schrank.

This operation underscores our commitment to protecting jobs for Georgians and Americans, ensuring empowering a level playing field for businesses that comply with the law, safeguarding the integrity of our economy and protecting workers from exploitation.

So far, no charges have been filed against the company or the workers, but officials say it is an ongoing investigation.

Now, the plant was a major economic project supported by the state of Georgia and part of a multibillion dollar facility that employs about 1,200 people. How have Georgia officials and the companies responded?

The Georgia Department of Economic Development told NPR in a statement that they expect, quote, anyone doing business in Georgia to follow federal and state laws. Meanwhile, LG Energy Solutions said in a statement that employees of both companies have been taken into custody and that they are cooperating. But in a separate statement, Hyundai said none of those detained were Hyundai employees.

Now, of course, the Trump administration has had a campaign going to detain and arrest immigrants unlawfully in the US. But large workplace raids have so far been relatively rare. Do you think this represents a shift in policy?

The Trump administration has vowed to hold companies accountable for employing people in the country illegally, but so far the policy has focused on arresting immigrants in smaller raids at a wide array of places, from Home Depot parking lots to construction sites and some farms. But this operation is the biggest workplace raid during this administration, and it happened in a red state in Georgia. On the same day, on Thursday, in central New York State, a food manufacturing plant was raided, and dozens of people suspected of being in the country illegally were detained. Does that mean it's a big policy shift We're going to have to see how frequent this becomes.

As you mentioned, most of those arrested were South Korean nationals. What response has there been from South Korea?

The South Korean government expressed concern. Embassy officials were sent to the site of the raid. A foreign Ministry spokesperson said, The business activities of our investors and the rights of our nationals must not be unjustly infringed. I just want to point out that President Trump has made it a priority to bring manufacturing to the US. In fact, just over a week ago, he hosted President Lee J. Mian of South Korea, who pledged to invest an additional $150 billion in the US, including in battery factories.

And Paris Jasmine Garst, thanks so much.

Thank for having me.

The National Conservatism Conference, convened in Washington, DC, this week, bringing Together, an influential group of conservative, political, and religious leaders.

Speakers included Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, several US senators, and senior Trump administration officials.

But one of the most anticipated speakers at NatCon was a pastor from Idaho named Doug Wilson. Jack Jenkins of Religion News Service was at the conference all week, and he's here now to tell us more about it. Hi, Jack.

Hey.

So who is Pastor Doug Wilson, and why were people so eager to hear from him at this conservatism conference featuring all these big-name political speakers?

Wilson is based out of Moscow, Idaho, where he leads Christ Church. He's been around for decades, and during that time, he slowly built his own Christian empire of sorts. But it's really over the past five years that he's become a national figure, in part because of his open embrace of Christian nationalism. He's very publicly called for a Christian America where women can't vote and non Christians and even liberal Christians are barred from holding office. He's one of some political allies. Secretary of Defense, Pete Hexeth attends worship at two of the churches in Wilson's denomination.

What did Wilson have to say?

Well, this was Wilson's second time speaking at Natcon, and he's a popular figure there. You could see him getting mobbed in the hallways by fans in the conference. During his talk, he laid out his argument for why the US should be a nation led by and for Christians while also expressing his views on immigration.

It is simply a historical fact that America was deeply Christian and Protestant at the founding.

And he also said, In the meantime, it is not xenophobic to object to the immigration policies of those who want to turn the Michigan Ohio border into something that resembles the India-Pakistan border.

That nonsense from our utopian social engineers is actually the root of our current set of practical dilemmas.

And he's not limiting himself to this one annual conference.

That's right. Back in July, he established a outpost of his Idaho church that meets just a few blocks from the US Capitol. It's currently housed in a space rented from a right-wing think tank. In the first sermon delivered there. One of Wilson's pastors declared, Worship is warfare. He later praised the Department of Government Efficiency and described the US as a fallen and lapsed nation that has drifted from its Christian roots. I was there for that first service, and it was packed. Not only that, Secretary Hegsethe was sitting right near the front, and he's been there multiple times since. Folks expect him to be back in the pews again this Sunday when Wilson himself is expected to preach.

Back to the National Conservatism Conference. What else did you hear there?

There was a lot of opposition to immigration and a clear preference for white Americans with long family histories in the US. Other speakers and panelists criticized feminism and same-sex marriage. There was also an interesting amount of animus directed at AI and big tech. But if there was a recurring theme, it was that many speakers made a point to denigrate Islam and Muslims. One speaker told me he believes Muslim immigration should be zero, and others insisted that Islam, as a religion, is just incompatible with American values. Still, others mentioned the New York City mayoral campaign of Zoran Mamdani, a Muslim-American, and Jack Pasobeck, a right-wing influencer who was recently invited to travel with Hegseth on an international trip, had this to say. As I stand here today, we are less than 10 years away from one of America's great cities being run by a Muhammad. That was pretty typical rhetoric from this conference. As I watched many sessions over the course of the week, there was a clear desire to move past points of friction in this conference over Israel and other topics, and instead to disparage a common enemy. Much of that ended up directed at Mamdani and Muslims in general.

That's Jack Jenkins of Religion News Service. Thank you for joining us.

Thanks so much for having me.

This story was produced through a collaboration between NPR and Religion News Service.

And that's the first for Saturday, September sixth, 2025. I'm Scott Simon.

And I'm Ayesha Rosco.

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