New Delhi, Sept. 5 -- U.S. immigration authorities on Thursday raided the sprawling site where Hyundai manufactures electric vehicles in southeast Georgia, conducting a search that shut down construction on an adjacent factory being built to produce EV batteries.

The operation targeted one of Georgia's largest and most high-profile manufacturing sites, touted by the governor and other officials as the largest economic development project in the state's history. Hyundai Motor Group began manufacturing EVs a year ago at the $7.6 billion plant, which employs about 1,200 people.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Lindsay Williams confirmed that federal authorities were conducting an enforcement operation at the 3,000-acre (1...