JIM LYNN, LYDIA DEPILLIS, RICK ROJAS, FARAH STOCKMAN AND SEAN KEENAN

New York Times

ELLABELL, Ga. — A stretch of rural southeast Georgia, just outside Savannah, has been transforming rapidly in recent years, as a plan to create a massive manufacturing hub capable of producing nearly half a million vehicles per year has come to fruition.

The complex has embodied the ambitions of South Korean automakers wanting to compete in the U.S. market. It has also been a crowning achievement in a long campaign by Georgia officials to draw Korean investment. Until recently, crews had been busy building the latest piece of that effort, a plant making batteries for electric vehicles.

But that vision has become clouded by uncertainty after federal immigration authorities raided the plant Thursday, halt

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