WASHINGTON, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Georgia said Friday that federal agents arrested over 475 individuals without legal status, most of them from South Korea, after executing a search warrant Thursday at a Hyundai battery factory in the U.S. state of Georgia.

"Over the course of the day, federal, state, and local law enforcement executed the search warrant and identified hundreds of illegal workers. Law enforcement identified over 475 people who were unlawfully working at the location," according to a press release from the office.

U.S. Attorney Margaret Heap said in the release that the goal of this operation was "to reduce illegal employment and prevent employers from gaining an unfair advantage by hiring unauthorized workers" and "to protect unauthorized workers from exploitation."

Steven Schrank, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations for the states of Georgia and Alabama, said at a press conference that those immigrants were "illegally present in the United States, or in violation of their presence in the United States, working unlawfully, who have entered through a variety of different means into the United States."

The investigation had been ongoing for several months before the raid, he noted, adding that it covered a network of subcontractors and the arrested were working for multiple different companies on site.

According to U.S. National Public Radio, ICE spokesman Lindsay Williams confirmed that federal authorities carried out the enforcement operation at a 3,000-acre (1,214-hectare) site west of Savannah, Georgia.

"The raid raises a possible tension between two of (U.S.) President Donald Trump's top priorities -- building up manufacturing within the US and cracking down on illegal immigration. It also could put stress on the country's relationship with a key ally," the BBC reported. ■