Huge Immigration Bust
Plus: Light-rail killing, short-term rental ban ineffective, Perónism strikes back, and more...
Bust at an E.V. battery plant: "Immigration officials arrested nearly 500 workers, most of them South Korean citizens, at the construction site of an electric vehicle battery plant in Georgia on Thursday," reports The New York Times. The Hyundai plant raid was the largest single-site immigration bust in recent history. The people arrested were accused of belonging to one of three categories: They'd illegally crossed in the first place, or they'd received a visa waiver that prohibited working, or they'd overstayed a visa. Most of them were classified as subcontractors, and some of them were working to complete construction of the plant.
"The unfinished battery plant represented the kind of strategic investment the United States has welcomed from South Korea in recent years—one that promised to create manufacturing jobs and build up a growing industry," adds the Times. Georgia's governor, who has visited South Korea twice, has spent a lot of time courting investment, luring semiconductor material, solar panel, and battery manufacturers to his state.
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"Seoul-based Hyundai, whose U.S. sales have hit record monthly highs for nearly a year straight, has pledged $26 billion in fresh American investments since Trump took office earlier this year—including $5 billion after South Korea's leader visited the White House early last week," reports The Wall Street Journal.
Given Trump's purported manufacturing revitalization agenda, it will be interesting to see whether this plant gets completed, and on what timeline, following these busts.
Killing of woman on light rail in Charlotte: The common refrain on the right goes something like this: The left-leaning mainstream media fails to sufficiently cover crimes in which the victim is sympathetic and the perpetrator has a mile-long rap sheet. The killing of Ukrainian woman Iryna Zarutska provides a perfect example.
Zarutska, a 23-year-old blonde woman who fled her native Ukraine due to the war, was riding the light rail in Charlotte, North Carolina, minding her own business late last month. Decarlos Williams, a 35-year-old black man with many arrests under his belt and schizophrenia, unprompted and seemingly out of nowhere, stabbed her.
Elon Musk has signal-boosted this:
Exactly https://t.co/oKqIV0RXiX
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 8, 2025
"This is a tragic situation that sheds light on problems with society safety nets related to mental healthcare and the systems that should be in place," said the city's mayor in a statement released after the killing. "As we come to understand what happened and why, we must look at the entire situation. While I do not know the specifics of the man's medical record, what I have come to understand is that he has long struggled with mental health and appears to have suffered a crisis."
The kicker: "I am not villainizing those who struggle with their mental health or those who are unhoused. Mental health disease is just that – a disease like any other than needs to be treated with the same compassion, diligence and commitment as cancer or heart disease. Our community must work to address the underlying issue of access to mental healthcare. Also, those who are unhoused are more frequently the victim of crimes and not the perpetrators. Too many people who are on the street need a safe place to sleep and wrap around services to lift them up."
Looked at one way, it's a local crime story, and not every local crime story rises to the news of mainstream media coverage. Looked at another, it's a pattern: Someone who is a repeat offender, who should probably have been locked up, is able to kill an innocent person, and the Democratic mayor gives an awful lot of airtime to the plight of the perpetrator. We've seen this one play out again and again in blue cities over the last few years.
Now it's becoming a "Republicans pounce" story—thus warranting coverage:
The gruesome video of the fatal knife attack on Iryna Zarutska on a light-rail car in Charlotte is drawing attention from MAGA influencers seeking to elevate the issue of violent urban crime — and accuse mainstream media of under-covering shocking cases. https://t.co/OIj3FYfDLE
— Axios (@axios) September 8, 2025
Scenes from New York: "Lawmakers made two pledges in advocating for a law to enforce the city's longstanding prohibition on short-term rentals, which finally went into effect in 2023," reports The Wall Street Journal. "The first was that a crackdown would remove noisy, disruptive tourists from residential buildings that had turned into de facto hotels. The second was that curtailing Airbnb and other short-term rental companies' operations would protect the city's tight housing supply." But that second one never came to fruition: "Apartment rents are at all-time highs, while the vacancy rate is next to nothing. The new legislation removed tens of thousands of short-term rentals from New York City apartment buildings, but it is unclear how many of those units are now occupied by year-round tenants."
QUICK HITS
- French Prime Minister François Bayrou has put forward an "austerity budget proposal, designed to confront a severe deficit and a worsening national debt, in part by freezing welfare payments at their current levels," per The New York Times. His reward? Most likely: a vote of no confidence that gives him the boot.
- "Partial results of the Buenos Aires legislative elections: Fuerza Patria with 46.93% of the votes, while La Libertad Avanza achieved 33.85%," reports La Nación (translated from Spanish). For those keeping track: That's a victory for Perónism and a huge defeat for President Javier Milei's party (La Libertad). And if Milei can't get more supporters into the legislature, he's going to be severely hamstrung in what he can do.
Resultados parciales de las elecciones legislativas bonaerenses: Fuerza Patria con 46,93% de los votos, mientras que La Libertad Avanza logró el 33,85%. pic.twitter.com/zsm0FtWMJ1
— LA NACION (@LANACION) September 8, 2025
- Florida's New College has been the target of an ideological takeover by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis (and henchmen like Chris Rufo). Now some disgruntled former administration insiders there are trying to privatize the school, which sounds like a win for the taxpayers of Florida.
- Niiiice:
ProPublica looked into Trump's cabinet and found three members who claimed multiple properties as a primary residence, the same accusation made against Fed governor Lisa Cook. pic.twitter.com/I99lNuzvo1
— Steve Inskeep (@NPRinskeep) September 4, 2025
