A recent incident in which US authorities arrested and detained about 300 Korean workers using harsh, demeaning procedures left a deep scar on the Korea-US alliance.

Koreans, who are acutely sensitive to humiliation, were shocked to watch their only treaty ally treat them like criminals — handcuffed, shackled and herded away. That it happened at a factory in Ellabell, Georgia — widely seen as a symbol of bilateral economic cooperation between the wonderful allies — magnified the embarrassment, disappointment, anger and betrayal to an unprecedented level.

Why did this happen? The United States is the country Koreans like most, and the alliance has been a cornerstone and linchpin of peace and stability on the peninsula, in Northeast Asia and across the Pacific for more than 70 years.

Thanks to this alliance, the Republic of Korea rose from extreme poverty to a top-tier economy. Why, then, would the United States humiliate an ally? The simplest answer is that the Department of Homeland Security mechanically executed an anti-illegal-immigration campaign to hit enforcement targets under the Trump administration. Yet this case is baffling: The Koreans involved were not clandestine migrants but skilled technicians who entered temporarily to install equipment, run tests and train local workers for a joint factory project endorsed by both governments.

Very few Koreans want to overstay illegally in the US. If there were visa irregularities, they derived from the absence of an appropriate short-term technical visa in the US — not from criminal intent. Even if DHS were to argue that it misunderstood the situation and simply made an honest mistake while cracking down on illegal immigration, the gravity of this incident would not diminish. Treating cooperative Korean nationals like felons during a joint project amounts to a serious blow to the alliance — and Koreans may justifiably see it as an act of betrayal.

Why would Washington take actions so reckless that they could undermine what many call its most successful alliance? As the current America is shaped by President Donald Trump, we must check his worldview. Trump has long distrusted alliances, folding them into a broader narrative of American decline. Since the 1990s he has argued that misguided elites allowed illegal immigration and cheap Chinese imports to destroy jobs for Americans. He depicts allies as free riders exploiting American generosity. But the numbers tell another story.

After the Cold War ended in 1991, the US led the creation of a new international order in security and trade. Guided by neoliberal principles, Washington championed globalization — lowering tariffs, easing barriers and building integrated supply chains that linked the US, Western partners and even China. The results are clear. America’s nominal per-capita income has more than tripled from roughly $24,000 in 1991 to about $85,000 today. Even after inflation, it rose from around $40,000 to roughly $70,000. Average real growth since 1991 has been about 2.3 percent per year — higher than Japan, Germany, the UK and France, which hovered near 1.5 percent. By objective measures, the US economy has not declined; it has expanded dramatically.

Why, then, do claims of decline still resonate? Three dynamics help explain the paradox. First, globalization widened inequality at home. Finance giants on Wall Street and Big Tech leaders in Silicon Valley amassed vast gains while many manufacturing communities stagnated. Economic polarization spilled into politics, fueling intense partisanship. In a polarized climate, rational policy debate becomes impossible; the incentive is to attack the other side relentlessly. Second, with no unifying external enemy after the Cold War, domestic divisions lacked an offsetting national mission. Political tribalism deepened unchecked. Third, once tribalism is institutionalized, demonizing opponents, scapegoating minorities and blaming foreign nations become politically effective. For Trump, targeting undocumented immigrants from Latin America and slandering China for industrial decline serve this purpose. Casting allies as exploiters allows him to pressure them at low domestic cost — perhaps even to use incidents like the Korean worker arrests as leverage in trade negotiations.

Yet this worldview is detached from reality. Policies built on grievance and misperception cannot succeed; they produce self-defeating consequences that erode US leadership. The answer to inequality is not to punish partners outside but to adjust domestic policies to share the wealth fairly. The answer to polarization is not to inflame division but to restore a culture of compromise, because prolonged polarization ultimately weakens the nation as a whole.

There is a practical path forward that protects both American interests and allied dignity. First, Washington should create or adapt a narrowly tailored visa category for short-term technical deployments tied to allied industrial projects, with clear compliance guidance for firms and subcontractors. Second, DHS should issue field instructions distinguishing criminal trafficking from good-faith documentation errors on government-endorsed projects, emphasizing proportional, non-humiliating procedures. Third, Seoul and Washington should establish a rapid joint review mechanism so that labor, immigration and trade agencies can troubleshoot cross-border workforce issues before enforcement escalates. None of this softens US law; it simply aligns enforcement with broader strategic objectives.

The current global security and trade order was designed and made — largely by Washington — to serve US interests. Maintaining peace and stability remains the surest way to keep America prosperous. In that order, allies are not parasites; they are America’s greatest force multiplier. South Korea, in particular, has demonstrated reliability across security, technology and supply-chain resilience — from semiconductor capacity and battery ecosystems to shipbuilding, and contributions to global health. Undermining such a partner for performative toughness is not strategy; it is self-harm.

President Trump still has the opportunity to abandon a strange world of misunderstanding and prejudice. An alliance-together approach — firm on rules but respectful of partners — would better protect American workers, out-compete strategic rivals and sustain prosperity. If he pursues rational, common-sense policies anchored in truth rather than grievance, he can still be remembered as a president who left a legacy of peace, stability and shared prosperity — not only for the United States but for the world.

Wang Son-taek

Wang Son-taek is an adjunct professor at Sogang University. He is a former diplomatic correspondent at YTN and a former research associate at Yeosijae. The views expressed here are the writer’s own. — Ed.


khnews@heraldcorp.com