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Quest Means Business

French Government Collapses After Prime Minister Loses Confidence Vote; Reform U.K. Party Seeks To Capitalize On Anger Over Migration; House Democrats Post Image Of Birthday Note To Jeffrey Epstein Bearing Donald Trump's Name; U.S. Raid On Hyundai-LG Plant Sparks Outrage In Seoul. Aired 4-4:45p ET

Aired September 08, 2025 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[16:00:12]

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST, "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS": Closing bell ringing on Wall Street. Start of the new week. A very nice little bit of

green right at the end as Maximus gets ready to do the necessary business. All sorts of undercurrents taking place in the markets. But as you can see,

topsy-turvy, the summer has come to an end, things are getting ready. Yes, sir. Bring us out of our misery. One, two, three. A strong gavel. Trading

is over.

Those are the markets and these are the main events of the day.

The French government has collapsed, and once again, disagreement over the budget throws France into political chaos. South Korea's Foreign Minister

is headed to the U.S. after hundreds of its workers were detained in a giant U.S. immigration raid. We have a lawyer for two of those workers who

will be live with me tonight on the program.

And sources are telling CNN, two Trump economic officials, very high ones, nearly came to blows.

Now, tonight we are live in London. It is Monday, September the 8th. I am Richard Quest and I mean business.

Good evening.

The government has fallen in France after lawmakers ousted the Prime Minister. Francois Bayrou is expected now to submit his resignation to

President Macron at the Elysee Palace on Tuesday.

The Prime Minister had called a vote of confidence to push through his unpopular budget that cut overall spending. The President will now likely

appoint his third Prime Minister, at least that's one of the options he has got. It will be the third since last September.

The political crisis is adding to economic and international challenges that the country faces.

Melissa Bell is our correspondent and has sent this dispatch from Paris.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE speaking in foreign language.)

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Another French Prime Minister, ousted, 364 lawmakers voted out Francois Bayrou with

194 voting for the government, making him the fourth Prime Minister to lose office in 20 months despite his pleas just moments before.

FRANCOIS BAYROU, OUTGOING FRENCH PRIME MINISTER (through translator): If we want to save the ship, the ship we and our children are on, we have to act

immediately.

BELL (voice over): Just weeks after announcing he wanted to slash 44 billion euros from the budget in 2026.

BAYROU (through translator): Five thousand euros of additional debt per person. We should call it by its name. It is a mortal danger for our

country.

BELL (voice over): But France's Parliament has had no majority ever since the French President, Emmanuel Macron, dissolved the Assembly, triggering

elections in 2024 that left his center party weakened and the extremes both left and right, much stronger.

Since then, two Prime Ministers have tried and failed relatively quickly to get the confidence of France's Parliament.

MICHAEL BARNIER, FORMER FRENCH PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We proposed a budget, a difficult budget where everything was difficult to

reduce our deficit. This deficit did not disappear by the magic of a no confidence vote.

BELL (voice over): Handing the poisoned chalice to Francois Bayrou, who has faced a far right and far left emboldened by the failures of the center to

govern, ruling out any cooperation with him at all.

ANTOINE BRISTIELLE, DIRECTOR OF POLLING, JEAN-JAURES FOUNDATION: Yes, we are maybe in the in the regime crisis. So it is really complicated. There

is no real solution in the current context with the way the French political parties are working together.

BELL (on camera): With this latest vote here at the National Assembly, the French President is fast running out of options. He said that he will name

a new Prime Minister in the next few days. The question, whether he or she will have the numbers behind them to try and govern successfully, and this

with the clock ticking and the need to pass a new, smaller budget before the end of the year, and for now, no sense of who might be able to do that.

Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: So that's the political aspect of it, but now the economic side of it and the economic toll on France.

The yield on the French bond is 3.4 percent. It is higher than countries like Spain, Portugal and Greece, all which have addressed their debt with

austerity measures.

Anna Cooban is with me.

There is no immediate resolution to this French crisis, but the economics of it are pretty dire, too.

ANNA COOBAN, CNN BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS REPORTER: Yes. France has one of the highest debts in the Eurozone. At the end of last year, it was 113

percent, which is absolutely enormous and what the French government has done, the now ousted French government has done is essentially put forward

a plan, which many people have argued is really sort of tinkering at the edges.

[16:05:09]

I was speaking with Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize winning economist at the weekend, and he said that within this plan, there was a commitment to rid

of two public vacation days and this really just doesn't touch the sides. And to give you a sense of the scale of this, Francois Bayrou a few months

ago was predicting that by 2029, the interest payments alone on France's government debt would total around 100 billion euros, which would be the

single biggest expense, all being equal now, the single biggest expense that the French government would have to pay, bigger than the education

budget, for example, so that is the scale of the problem.

QUEST: Okay, but why are they why is it worse in France than elsewhere?

COOBAN: So France has a relatively very generous welfare state. I think anybody who has seen over the years attempts by the government to reform

the welfare state to reduce some of that generosity, we have seen changes to the pension age from 62 to 64 quite recently, a mass protest was sparked

by that, and there has been a lack of ambition among lawmakers to do what is really necessary to make these really hard choices.

And I just want to point you to a quote from Francois Bayrou in a speech he gave to lawmakers today. He said that "You have the power to bring down the

government, but you don't have the power to erase reality." And like anyone who has been in debt, debt begets debt. It just gets bigger and bigger and

bigger.

QUEST: How worried will the Eurozone be bearing in mind, obviously, the size of France, Eurozone country, and therefore what happens with France,

well, it can and may affect the Euro and therefore that has wider implications?

COOBAN: Yes, I think the leaders in Europe are going to be very scarred by what happened around 15 years ago with the Eurozone debt crisis. So my

hunch is that they won't allow this to get to the point where you've got IMF bailouts, the Euro more broadly is being impacted, but it is clear that

France is needing to get its House in order.

QUEST: Anna, I am grateful. Thank you. Anna Cooban joining us on that one.

Now, the United Kingdom says it could cut the number of visas granted to countries that do not accept the return of undocumented migrants. The issue

came up at a meeting at the Five Eyes Intelligence Sharing Alliance.

The British Home Secretary, the new Home Secretary, says the move would send a message that the U.K. will take action in response to threats to its

border security.

The issue of immigration has taken center stage for British voters and political parties. Net immigration has spiked in recent years under the

post-Brexit system. Political leaders are trying to boost nominal economic growth.

At this weekend's Reform Party Conference, the leader, Nigel Farage, says curbing entries would be a priority for him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIGEL FARAGE, REFORM U.K. PARTY LEADER: We will stop the boats and we will detain and deport those who illegally break into our country, doing what

nearly every normal country around the rest of the world does.

You cannot come here illegally and stay. We will stop the boats within two weeks of winning government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: With me is Lord Michael Heseltine, former U.K. Deputy Prime Minister, statesman of the United Kingdom. He is the author of "From Acorns

to Oaks: An Urgent Agenda to Rebuild Britain." His Lordship is with me.

Michael Heseltine, this is the second book, in a sense. I've interviewed an author where we've got a member of the Tory Party. The other one was Sir

Jeremy Hunt, basically saying we must get back to greatness, Make Britain Great Again, or some version thereof.

But what is your message when you see people like, Nigel Farage and Reform seemingly riding this bandwagon of immigration?

LORD MICHAEL HESELTINE, FORMER U.K. DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: Well, of course we've seen it all before. We saw Mosley and the Jews in the 30s. We saw

Enoch Powell and the Blacks in the 60s. It is the oldest trick in the world to pander to people's basic insecurity. And if you've got an economic

problem, which we have, then of course, people want change and you start offering them phony deals and emotional reactions.

It is very frightening.

QUEST: The big difference, I think, of course, is that now there is an -- you know, Donald Trump in The White House who has been successful at the

ballot box with many of these policies, and it is encouraging others to do the same.

HESELTINE: Well, Boris Johnson was successful with these policies and, as you say, Donald Trump. The issue is whether they are the right policies and

whether they last. And my guess is that you will see that the Democratic Party will make significant advance in the midterm of the elections because

Trump is causing a lot of uncertainty in the world and creating problems at the same time, allowing a sort of drift in Ukraine to continue.

[16:10:21]

QUEST: Really looking at the book, I was really taken by you're talking here about the importance of industrial strategy.

HESELTINE: Yes.

QUEST: Of course, industrial strategy and industrial policy is a very 1960s idea in a sense, Labour and Harold Wilson. But it has again and again come

back in different guises.

With Donald Trump, we have a tariff policy. He has invested in NVIDIA. He is investing in Intel. This looks like an industrial policy of sorts. Does

Europe need to do the same?

HESELTINE: Well, certainly Europe does need to do the same, because if you look at the size of the nation states that make up Europe, none of them can

match anywhere near what China and America and one day, India are doing.

And I spent quite a lot of my early life trying to create European fora in order to match the scale that the world competition offers. We created the

European Space Agency. I signed the Typhoon Deal, which is the biggest ever space deal that Britain has ever done, and it is an absolute tragedy that

Brexit is now having a debilitating effect on this country.

And the quicker its put right, the better.

QUEST: But it is not going to be. There is not going to be a reversal on Brexit.

HESELTINE: Oh, yes, there is. Most certainly. It is only a question of when, not if.

QUEST: All right, but the when is going to be a long time off.

HESELTINE: It depends on the economics. If they continue to cause the same problem now and with a younger generation coming into the electorate, I

think that you can see the opinion polls, for example, now already are in favor of rejoining Europe.

QUEST: Except if I look at Europe, it is not -- when I say split, the ability for Europe to take decisions is just as difficult as it always was.

Hungary, on one side, Slovakia, you've got the Northern Baltic countries. They can't agree on things like Ukraine. And that makes --

HESELTINE: I think you've missed the key point. We always fail to take decisions except one: How to fight each other? And what the European

Movement has achieved in my lifetime is to create the rule of law across Europe, and a unified capability to take decisions. It has been a huge

improvement.

QUEST: Do you think Europe should stand up more to the United States on things like the tariff issue, where the view is that Ursula von der Leyen

basically rolled over?

HESELTINE: Well, I think that Europe needs to be strong enough to stand its own corner, whatever the circumstance is and that separate nation states

cannot do that. And so there is a lesson to be learned, and I believe myself that frankly, the deception of Brexit has exposed Britain as a

lonely person sitting outside the conference table.

QUEST: Is the is the Tory Party electable after Liz Truss --

HESELTINE: The Tory Party is the most successful political party in the history of democracy. Now, it may be having its difficulties at the moment,

but it understands the hunger for power. It will be back.

QUEST: You say that, but after the Liz Truss fiasco, why would anybody trust the conservatives again?

HESELTINE: The conservatives have been through difficult times.

Look in 1945, it looked incredible. Even Churchill couldn't save them from the memories of the 30s. What happened? They came back. And that is because

the Tory Party understands the nature of power and how, in the end, you have to achieve it. And the key thing the Tory Party always recognizes in

the end, is that you have to provide a balance between left and right. You have to appeal to the center ground as well as the more extreme ground, and

they've always found a way of doing that.

QUEST: Your Lordship, honored to have you on the program tonight, sir. Thank you very much indeed.

Now, sources are telling us that the U.S. Treasury Secretary, forgive me, threatened to punch another Trump official in the face for what happened

last week.

Now, Scott Bessent almost traded blows with the Director of Federal Housing Finance Agency, that is something we need to discuss after the break with.

QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.

U.S. House Democrats have posted a copy of a birthday note to Jeffrey Epstein from 2003. It bears Donald Trump's name. The image was taken from

the so-called birthday book, turned over to the House Oversight Committee by Epstein's estate. "The Wall Street Journal" first reported on the

suggestive drawing back in July.

The President denies writing the letter and has sued the journal for defamation. In response to the post on X, The White House again argued the

letter was defamation.

Manu Raju is with me. This is getting silly, Manu. It is either his or it is not. He either did it or he didn't, which is it?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, The White House is denying that this is his signature and this document that's being

released right now came as a result of the House Oversight Committee subpoena to the Epstein estate asking for a wide range of documents. They

appear to have gotten a significant amount of documents, including contacts of Jeffrey Epstein's, as well as details about a plea agreement that was

reached initially with the government and Jeffrey Epstein in the 2007-2008 time frame. Ultimately, that was criticized as a very lenient plea

agreement.

But this doodle in particular has, of course, gotten a lot of attention because Trump sued "The Wall Street Journal" over reporting its contents a

few months ago, and sued them for defamation. He fiercely denied that he had written anything of the sort to Jeffrey Epstein, and in this it says --

at the bottom of this it says in his letter -- in this letter that was released today, it says "A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday. And

may every day be another wonderful secret. Donald J. Trump." It has the name "Donald" in as the signature.

But again, The White House says it is not his signature, which is so -- so it is only going to be a matter of time before we figure out the truth if

it is possible to determine the truth at this time -- Richard.

QUEST: I mean, it is so bizarre because he either did it or he didn't. What do other politicians -- what do other congressmen and senators make of it?

I am guessing a lot of them want to run in the opposite direction, and wear some very strong gloves, as they go anywhere near it.

RAJU: Well, that's usually the case on any number of issues around here. I can tell you from experience, Richard. But tonight, we will get a chance to

ask a lot of them. Right now, many members are simply not back in town yet, or they're not back in the Capitol. They don't vote until the evening time

here in the United States House and the United States Senate.

We just got a chance to ask the Senate Majority Leader, John Thune. He is the top Republican in the United States Senate. He said he hadn't seen the

report yet. He didn't want to comment on this yet. We have not heard from the Speaker of the House as well, who has defended Trump through all of

this.

But I can expect it, though, Richard, that a lot of them are simply going to align themselves with The White House's denial on this, and the question

ultimately is going to be if enough Republicans break ranks to force a vote on a bill that would compel the release of all the Epstein documents.

[16:20:17]

So far, just four Republicans have signed on to that effort. They need to have six Republicans to do so to circumvent the opposition of The White

House and Republican leadership on this bill. The question is, does this change the calculus to some of those members who want to see the documents

out there? It is unclear at this moment -- Richard.

QUEST: Fascinating! Thank you, Manu. Making it clear. Thank you.

Now, this is another story that's really quite extraordinary. Tempers are apparently flaring amongst President Trump's economic team. According to

some sources, the Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent threatened to punch another official in the face last week.

Bill Pulte serves as the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. He and Bessent were attending a dinner at the Executive Club. Bessent accused

Pulte of talking negatively about him to the President. Things escalated. Bessent cursed at him and told him to take the matter outside.

It is worth mentioning, of course, that Mr. Bill Pulte is the man who is leading the charge against the Fed Governor Lisa Cook.

Now, Kristen Holmes is at the white house.

This is very unseemly. Is it true?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I mean, it is true. And we are reporting it from someone we spoke to who witnessed the event. The source

telling me that it was one of the most insane things that they'd ever seen.

Essentially, it started at this cocktail hour before they sat down for dinner with Bessent accusing Pulte of talking bad about him to the

President, which we are told by sources, was correct that Pulte had said some negative remarks about Bessent to President Trump.

At one point he said that he was going to punch him in the face. Bessent said this to Pulte. At another point, a co-founder of this Exclusive Social

Club, it is a MAGA-aligned social club for the uber rich, stepped in to break up the altercation.

At that point is when Bessent said, why don't we bring this outside. Pulte, I am told, looked kind of confused and shocked at all of this unfolding,

and then the two men did end up staying for the dinner, but they sat nowhere near each other during that actual dinner, and apparently Bessent

did disappear for a short while, and then he came back to join the rest of these people, some of them other, Cabinet Secretaries.

This is not the first time that we have heard about an altercation between Bessent and someone else who is advising the administration. Of course, we

remember back when Elon Musk was still working in tandem with The White House and with President Trump, there was an altercation here at The White

House between Bessent and Musk, in which they got in an argument very heated, lots of yelling, cursing all around who was going to lead the IRS?

So clearly here this is now another time that we have seen this kind of thing.

QUEST: And yet, in many ways, Scott Bessent is, if you will, the mild mannered -- well, clearly not, the sort of face of the administration. He

is very academic, cerebral. He speaks slowly. He, you know, he is a hedge fund. He is enormously respected, a bit of a dark horse, really, one way or

another.

HOLMES: Yes, and I would say that not mild mannered, obviously, given this event, but soft spoken. So someone that people are surprised to hear would

have this kind of a short fuse.

I did ask somebody again who witnessed this event what their takeaway was, and their takeaway was that Bessent seems to be a hot head based on this

interaction here. And of course, one thing to note, President Trump has continued to praise Bessent even since this interview or since this event

between these two men, this altercation. The other part of this, of course, being what you mentioned, that Pulte has really risen in the ranks and that

his stock is trading high among MAGA world and President Trump because he has helped with this fight against the Federal Reserve.

QUEST: Kristen, I am grateful. Who knows what we will be talking about in our next conversation. There we go. Thank you.

Now, President Trump says he is ready to slap new sanctions on Russia and that top European officials in Washington to coordinate this.

E.U. Sanctions Envoy, David O'Sullivan is expected to meet with the administration officials and there is an urgency to get new sanctions on

the books.

Russia launched the largest air attack of the war over the weekend. Moscow deploying more than 800 drones and struck a government building where the

Prime Minister's office is for the first time. Ukraine's President Zelenskyy says four people were killed and dozens were injured.

Yuriy Ryzhenkov is the chief executive of Metinvest Group. He joins me from Kyiv.

Sir, the level of infrastructure attack and the ability for both private and public sector in Ukraine to withstand this, I mean, it is getting

harder and harder. You can't keep up.

[16:25:15]

YURIY RYZHENKOV, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, METINVEST GROUP: Well, unfortunately this goes on now for the fourth year into the war, and so far Ukraine hasn't

been able to pull itself together and recover from those attacks. Unfortunately, the latest one also injured some of our employees at their

homes in Zaporizhzhia region and in Kryvyi Rih. So yes, this is pretty hard, but the country still is functioning, the businesses still

functioning. We are still working towards a victory.

QUEST: I mean, are you able to keep producing? I mean, obviously not at the same level as you might have before, but the ability for mining steel and

ore production and iron production and all the products that you make, it must be getting more difficult, not only just to physically make it, but to

gain the confidence of investors and customers.

RYZHENKOV: That's the most difficult part, and especially it was very difficult in the first year of this full scale invasion. Since then the

Black Sea trading route has been reopened to Ukraine, thanks to Ukrainian Armed Forces and we have been able to send our exports through the Black

Sea ports, which allowed us to upscale production to about 65 to 70 percent of the pre-war levels.

QUEST: This is a toughie. In Ukraine, what do you make of Donald Trump's policies? And by this, I know it is always -- it is very difficult because

you don't want to criticize the U.S. President, but at the same time, how many times can he give Vladimir Putin a deadline that then slips and loses

and no secondary sanctions, no further action? Do you sort of feel it is never going to happen?

RYZHENKOV: It is a difficult one as you say, but we've seen the U.S. being supportive of Ukraine's sovereignty through throughout its history and

through many administrations. And from my understanding, Trump administration also supports Ukraine's sovereignty and would like to help

this war to end. It is just they have their own ways of doing it. So were just there to, hold on, to continue our efforts and see what happens.

That's the best answer I can give you.

QUEST: Right, and for your company, what is it you need? I mean, actually go above your company, go to corporate Ukraine in its wider -- I realize

you're not the official spokesman for the chamber of commerce of Ukraine, but you get my point.

What is it you need? Is it financing? Is it export guarantees? Is it -- I mean, what is the true difficulty for large scale corporations now in

Ukraine?

RYZHENKOV: I think at the moment, it is the security concerns that that investors have, and also that we have about our employees and our

enterprises.

So we need security guarantees in terms of investment safety in Ukraine to bring the investors in, and that's number one. And number two, we do need

openness of the markets, especially the European market, which is -- it is not about exports, it is about survival. It is not just trade. So that's

the most important two things, the security guarantees and openness of the markets.

QUEST: Because the future is extremely optimistic. It wants this -- I mean, if we just take for example, you know, rightly or wrongly, the

minerals deal that was done with the United States, the vast rare earth minerals that you're sitting on, that frankly, the rest of us all need is

an extremely optimistic proposition. But again, as you say, sir, once the war ends.

RYZHENKOV: Unfortunately, this is a prerequisite for any substantial investment in Ukraine. Obviously, we are investing in Ukraine even now,

even during the full scale war, but not to the magnitude that the Ukrainian economy requires and the mineral deals is we see it as a very important

deal and we would welcome new investors, especially American investors in Ukraine that would help to revive Ukrainian economy.

QUEST: I always say at our next interview, please, God, we will be in Kyiv. Hopefully, we will be there with you and we will be able to talk to you on

your own home turf and talk about these issues. Well, I am grateful to you, sir, for joining us tonight.

QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. Thank you.

And now, coming up next, South Korea's top diplomat is on his way to the United States where a raid at sprawling plant that employed hundreds of

South Korean nationals, threatens to strain ties between the longtime allies.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:33:09]

QUEST: South Korea's foreign minister is on his way to the United States after that immigration raid on a Hyundai-LG battery plant. 475 people were

taken into custody last week on suspicion of living and working in the U.S. illegally. Most of those arrested are South Korean nationals, their visa

status is unclear.

President Trump said the raid, which took place near Savannah in Georgia shows that foreign companies should hire and train American workers when

investing in the U.S. Incidents threatening to upend trade and economic relations between the two countries.

More now from our correspondent Mike Valerio, who sent this report from Seoul.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The video released by ICE of South Koreans handcuffed, chains around their waist, causing unease and

astonishment across South Korea.

Song Seok-ha acutely feels both of those emotions since he runs an American friendship booth in the heart of Seoul, calling for greater U.S.-South

Korea ties.

I was very, very disappointed, Song said of the ICE raids. This time, it seemed too extreme. I'm worried this might put a crack in the U.S.-South

Korea alliance.

Only a block away, outside the U.S. embassy, the leader of South Korea's liberal Progressive Party, Kim Jae-yeon, holds a sign saying, "Investment

forced, work visas denied, we condemn the robbery-like actions of the U.S."

KIM JAE-YEON, PROGRESSIVE PARTY LEADER: President Trump has pressured Korea to make more investments in the U.S., and the Korean government made such a

pledge in good faith. This incident should have been resolved based on the trust built between the two countries.

VALERIO: The president posted on Truth Social late Sunday, writing, quote, your investments are welcome and we encourage you to legally bring your

very smart people. What we ask in return is that you hire and train American workers.

[16:35:03]

The feelings across South Korea are complicated. America is its most important ally, with nearly 30,000 U.S. troops stationed here, in part as a

security guarantee against North Korea. But notably, South Korea's government has not reacted to the ICE raid with anger.

The country's foreign minister, leaving Monday night on an urgent trip to Washington, stressing that the government is acting quickly to bring its

citizens home.

CHO HYUN, SOUTH KOREAN FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER (through translator): The Korean embassy in the U.S. and the consulate general in Atlanta have been

instructed to take all necessary measures to resolve this issue swiftly.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's an honor to be with President Lee of South Korea.

VALERIO: The raid happened less than two weeks after South Korea's president was in the Oval Office, hailing new investments his country could

make in the American economy. Now, questions linger as to how Korean investment sentiment could be affected.

What are the ripple effects you see here?

CHO HEE-KYOUNG, PROFESSOR OF LAW, HONGIK UNIVERSIYT: Obviously, they're going to have huge hesitation about investing in the U.S. if your employees

are going to be treated like common criminals, people who are actually, you know, giving up, family life to go fly across the ocean.

VALERIO: LG Energy Solution, Hyundai's partner in the Georgia electric vehicle and battery plant, confirmed with CNN it is suspending nearly all

0of its American business trips, telling employees in the U.S. now to either stay in their accommodations or come home immediately.

The timetable for all 300-plus South Koreans to return home on a charter flight is still unclear. What is certain how quickly the largest ICE raid

of its kind has tested the strength and the trust of the U.S.-South Korea alliance.

Mike Valerio, CNN, Seoul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: So, immediately after that raid, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security put out a statement. It said as follows, we are sending a clear

and unequivocal message, those who exploit our workforce, undermine our economy and violate federal laws will be held accountable.

Hyundai says monitoring the situation. Said Hyundai is committed to full compliance with all laws and regulations, etc. This includes employment,

etcetera, etcetera. You can see it on the screen.

Charles Kuck is the -- is an immigration attorney in Georgia representing several of the South Korean workers swept up in the red. Mr. Kuck, first of

all, are your clients still in the United States? Or have they already returned to South Korea?

CHARLES KUCK, FOUNDING PARTNER, KUCK BAXTER IMMIGRATION LLC: No, they're still in the United States, in immigration custody in South Georgia, in the

folks in detention center. Jail, not detention center.

QUEST: Right, to be clear, the suggestion is that they were there illegally working. Your response, of course, I'll just -- is that they were there on

valid ESTA visa waivers, and that the work that they were doing was permitted within the -- within that regulation, is that the gist of it?

KUCK: That is the gist of it. The reality is our immigration laws are terrible, last revised in 1990 so there isn't an exact category for what

these fellows are allowed to do, so under the ESTA business visitor, or the B1 Business Visitor Program, you can come in and go to business meetings.

You can do engineering oversight. You can do after sales, service and installation, which is what these people were doing in United States.

A Hyundai battery plant doesn't just spring into existence. It has to be built by people who build battery plants, and those people don't live in

the United States.

QUEST: So, they were also, just to be clear, within the expiration date of their ESTA, and they weren't being paid out of the U.S. domestic entity. Is

that correct? Because these are also important aspects of immigration.

KUCK: That is correct. There was no visa overstays. And in fact, a couple of these people had only been there three days when this raid occurred, and

they were leaving this week. They released, literally coming for meetings. ICE did not do a very good job of preparing for this raid.

QUEST: So, when you turn up and point out, look, these people were doing this. They're on valid visas. Blah, blah, blah. When you make your

application, what has ICE said to you about why they don't accept these people were there?

KUCK: ICE is saying nothing because they won't communicate with us. That's the problem here. This raid was conducted by a part of ICE called HSI that

do work site enforcement, but they're being held by a different part of ICE called ERO, removal operations. And ERO is dealing with an influx of people

that they were not anticipating, because HSI went on that raid to look for Latino workers, about 200 of them, and then they're bringing 300 Koreans

instead.

[16:40:00]

QUEST: I mean, the reality, of course, and the difficulty for you is that immigration and visas is also, there's a huge amount of discretion to the

Secretary of State and the State Department.

And you know the idea, it's a privilege, it can be revoked, etcetera, etcetera, so your clients are de facto out of luck.

KUCK: Well, they have a big problem, because if they choose to leave on a flight, it's quite possible that they won't be able to come back on ESTA or

even get a visa in the future, keeping in mind that these are the highly qualified technicians and engineers that build battery plants for these

parties.

So, this is going to be a major blow to the economy here in Georgia.

QUEST: Would you suggest to any -- look, you know, QUEST MEANS BUSINESS, we have huge number of business -- significant business executives, engineers,

watching us tonight. Would you say be very careful before you go to the United States, be very careful, you never know whether it's at the airport

or when you get your meetings or whatever? Or is this just a really case of bad luck for your clients.

KUCK: I don't think this is bad luck. I think this is the new policy of this administration, and I think people do have to be careful before

deciding to come the United States to engage in business activities.

Frankly, you'd be foolish not to think about this and the potential downside of that type of investment or that type of visit.

QUEST: Are you concerned for yourself, in a sense, you're taking on high profile cases all of a sudden, who knows how many tax audits you'll get,

how much investigations you'll end up with?

KUCK: You know, somebody has to stand up, and I'm more than willing to be that person for my clients. The reality is, President Trump and this

administration is only in office for 3.5 more years. Well, I'm not sure we've been through worse, but I know we can deal with this.

QUEST: Kuck, please come back and talk us through this again as the case proceeds. I'm very grateful that you've taken time and what's an extremely

busy time for you. Thank you.

Want to show you very quickly how the markets have closed. A couple of inflation reports gated this week. 114, it was a late rally, which is

interesting. The NASDAQ is at a record, yay, nearly half a percent, who knows why?

All right, that is tonight's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS, I'm Richard Quest in London. Whatever you're up to in the hours ahead, I hope it's profitable.

I'll see you. I'll be back in New York tomorrow.

Coming up next, "CONNECTING AFRICA."

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(CONNECTING AFRICA)

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