Saw an interview with one of these guys yesterday, maybe on bbc or dw, and his concluding remark is worth repeating. After describing what sounded like truly horrible treatment, when asked if he’d ever come back to the USA, said he would but never to Georgia. That confirmed my suspicion that this was more of a Georgia issue than a national one.
It's funny cuz I know people who have move to Seoul and are experiencing the "bali-bali" Korean work culture. Corporate wonderland creates trauma world over.
This was a federal operation IIRC, so it could happen anywhere in the US. The individual states are not legally empowered to prevent this sort of thing.
Whether they are or whether they just decide to usurp federal authority for political reasons doesn’t matter. That they do usurp federal authority is what matters.
The current US government policy of just acting out like assholes, when you don't even have to (these folks had visas to work, they weren't running off), is so disheartening. America without allies is a much weaker nation.