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NBC News
41 minutes ago
- Politics
- NBC News
Hundreds of meatpacking workers with work permits lose their jobs following Trump immigration crackdown
Hundreds of immigrant workers at a meatpacking plant in Iowa have lost their jobs and face deportation risks after their work authorizations, which were tied to their immigration status, were revoked following the Trump administration's termination of a series of legal immigration programs. More than 200 employees at a JBS pork production facility in the city of Ottumwa began receiving letters of termination six weeks ago and having individual meetings with their employer, according to Otumwa Mayor Rick Johnson and Brian Ulin, a member and spokesperson of the United Food & Commercial Workers Local 230, which represents JBS workers in Ottumwa. In the meetings, JBS told the affected employees that their 'status was being rejected' by the company's verification system, Ulin told NBC News on Tuesday. "It said that they were no longer eligible to work in the U.S.' Many of the employees lost their legal immigration status and thus their accompanying work authorizations following the Trump administration's termination of programs such as the CHNV parole program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, as well as various types of Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, according to the mayor, Ulin and Paulina Ocegueda, vice president of Ottumwa's chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the nation's oldest Hispanic civil rights organization. The programs gave temporary legal status to eligible immigrants from certain countries who have undergone natural disasters or political turmoil. 'They came here legally and they were doing it the right way," Ocegueda told NBC News. The Trump administration has argued that the TPS and CHNV programs are meant to be temporary and have allowed too many immigrants to enter the country. 'President Trump is enforcing federal immigration law and fulfilling his promise to the American people to end the exploitation of temporary programs — like TPS and CHNV — that were never intended to be a path to permanent status or citizenship," White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement to NBC News. "Under the Biden Administration, programs like CHNV were abused to admit hundreds of thousands of poorly vetted illegal aliens," Jackson stated, adding that there "is no shortage of American minds and hands to grow our labor force." 'A scary time for them' Ocegueda said LULAC had been meeting with employees losing their jobs and work authorizations who are now struggling to pay for their homes and feed their children. 'It's just a very scary time for them right now,' Ocegueda said. 'We're just trying to make sure that our community is not scared, making sure that they try to find the right resources.' Nikki Richardson, the head of communications at JBS, told NBC News in an email Tuesday evening that the company is "focused on hiring team members who are legally authorized to work in the United States, and will continue to follow the guidance provided to us by the U.S. government." "If that guidance changes, we will act accordingly. We are communicating to any impacted employees that if their status changes or they have different documentation to share, they are eligible for reinstatement and/or rehire," Richardson said. The affected meatpacking plant in Ottumwa is the city's biggest employer, according to Ocegueda and Ulin. 'People have to wake up. People have to realize how much this is going to hurt all of us. We are messing with people's lives right now," Ocegueda said. During a City Council meeting July 15, Johnson said: 'JBS has been issuing 200 notices to people from Haiti, Cuba, Guatemala and Nicaragua. These people have work visas, but they've been revoked and the Supreme Court has upheld those revocations." "When people get these letters, it's my understanding JBS is meeting with each of these families individually. Their employment at JBS is terminated immediately and they have to get out of the country immediately," the mayor continued. Even though resources are limited, Ulin said the union is trying to help impacted members with legal assistance. Some of the employees were fairly new and others had worked at JBS for a long time, Ulin said. He described them as "hardworking, decent people" who are "just trying to better themselves." "They're not being treated fairly. They did everything right. They did what they were told do. They followed the procedure," Ulin said. "But because of some political B.S. ... they're caught in the middle." He also pointed out that these are the same meatpacking workers the first Trump administration deemed essential workers during the Covid pandemic. "Everybody working on that plant, some of these people were among them, showed up for work willingly and proudly, to put food on the table during a crisis time," Ulin said. "Five short years later, because of some political immigration issue — you're not good enough to work here anymore. I just have an issue with that." According to Richardson, the JBS "facilities are operating normally and our production levels remain unchanged" as of Tuesday evening.
The Guardian
17 hours ago
- Business
- The Guardian
US workers say Trump's immigration crackdown is causing labor shortages: ‘A strain on everybody'
Donald Trump's crackdown on immigration is piling pressure on US factories, according to employees and union leaders, as veteran workers from overseas are forced to leave their jobs. As economists warn the administration's full-scale deportation ambitions could ultimately cost millions of jobs, workers at two sites – in Michigan and Kentucky – told the Guardian that industrial giants are grappling with labor shortages. The US president has moved to strip more than a million immigrants of their legal status in the US, including by shutting down the Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans (CHNV) Parole Program, which allowed hundreds of thousands to work legally in the country. It has meanwhile ramped up immigration arrest operations with prospective daily quotas of 3,000 arrests per day. Such moves have piled pressure on industries across the US economy – including the food, hospitality, construction, transportation and care sectors – which rely on large numbers of migrants to do essential work. At a GE Appliances plant in Louisville, Kentucky, more than 125 workers were abruptly forced out of their jobs in the spring due to programs cancelled as part of Trump's immigration crackdown, according to an employee. GE Appliances makes home appliances including refrigerators, microwaves and dishwashers. 'In three different buildings, on a couple of different shifts, stewards reported that they lost production so they weren't able to make all the products they were supposed to make,' said Jess Reese, a replacement operator at the plant and organizer for IUE-CWA Local 83761. 'It was hard to cover certain job tasks on the assembly line, and so that created chaos, and it was just hard to get things done.' Reese expressed concern about the threat of more workers being forced out. Trump's efforts to revoke protected status could impact an additional 200 union members next February, she said. 'Hundreds of workers kind of disappearing at the drop of a hat is no joke, as we've seen with the last wave of mass terminations.' A spokesperson for GE Appliances said: 'We added additional staffing where needed and continue to follow the law.' At a Kraft-Heinz plant in Holland, Michigan, meanwhile, workers are said to have been mandated to work overtime. The firm is one of the largest food and beverage companies in the world, behind brands including Philadelphia cream cheese and Jell-O deserts. 'We had people there for 20 years, and all of a sudden they get notification their immigration authorization is revoked,' Tomas Torres, a maintenance mechanic of 13 years, and president of RWDSU Local 705. 'And they can't be there anymore, and that just puts a strain on everybody,. 'The lack of people on the lines. There are employees running two machines; it should be one person per machine. Manager and supervisors are all stressed out, and cancelling vacations for people because they don't have enough to run the machines.' Torres has been working 12- to 14-hour days, he said: part of a first shift, all of a second shift, and part of a third shift. 'I'm tired. And you catch people falling asleep on the line, and it's a big safety issue,' he added. 'All of this that has happened has affected everybody at the plant. It's crazy, because I hear people complain every single day.' Kraft Heinz refuted the plant is experiencing labor shortages due to immigration policy changes, but did not say how many workers were lost at the plant due to the changes. 'Kraft Heinz has strict work authorization verification processes that comply with all applicable laws and regulations,' said the firm in a statement. 'Overtime is driven by the needs of the business, and we are currently in one of our busiest seasons of the year.' As Trump's officials press ahead, economists have warned that deporting millions of immigrants from the US could have drastic consequences. The Economic Policy Institute estimated this month that 4 million deportations would result in the loss of 3.3 million jobs held by immigrants in the US and 2.6 million US-born employees, hitting industries including construction and childcare. The American Enterprise Institute, a conservative thinktank, meanwhile found that Trump's immigration policies would likely lead to a negative net migration into the US for the first time in decades and result in a decrease in US gross domestic product of between 0.3% and 0.4%, or $70.5bn to $94bn in economic output, annually. 'One day they are there,' said Maria Jose Padmore, a human services assistant for Fairfax County in Virginia. 'And the next day, I'm looking for my coworker, and he's gone because their Temporary Protected Status expired. 'Forget about the fact that I now have to share my coworkers' job. Let's think about my coworkers' family: how are they going to put food on their table?' Padmore was speaking at a panel on how Trump's immigration polices are affecting workers, organized by the AFL-CIO in Washington DC this month. Gwen Mills, President of Unite Here, the largest hospitality union in the US, said they were 'wreaking havoc across the families of our coworkers and in our communities'. 'Oftentimes within the labor movement, we find ourselves divided by industries,' said Jimmy Williams, president of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, which represents construction workers. 'When it comes to immigration, it's gotta be the one single thing that puts a thread between a hotel worker, a construction worker, a service worker, a public employee, a teacher. This is something that affects every single working person in this country.' The Trump administration alleges that CHNV and other temporary protected status programs were abused, a claim challenged by groups such as Refugees International. 'There is no shortage of American minds and hands to grow our labor force, and President Trump's agenda to create jobs for American workers represents this Administration's commitment to capitalizing on that untapped potential while delivering on our mandate to enforce our immigration laws,' said Abigail Jackson, White House spokesperson. But its policies are already causing apprehension on the factory floor. 'This has a real impact on immigrant workers, obviously, but it also has a real impact on non immigrant workers,' Reese, at the GE Appliances plant in Louisville, said. 'It's really important that we stick together, because we all want the same things. 'We want safe workplaces. We want good wages. We all want to go home to our family in one piece. We want to live in a safe place. We want to be free. These are things we all share, and we're only going to get that stuff if we stick together.'
Reuters
20 hours ago
- Politics
- Reuters
US appeals court weighs Trump move to end of thousands of migrants' status
July 29 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday urged a U.S. appeals court to rule that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem acted lawfully when she revoked the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans living in the United States. U.S. Department of Justice attorney Drew Ensign told a three-judge panel of the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that a lower-court judge had wrongly concluded Noem lacked the discretion to categorically end the immigration "parole" granted to approximately 430,000 migrants by Trump's Democratic predecessor Joe Biden. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, halted the agency's action on April 14, saying Noem could only revoke previously granted parole and work authorizations for migrants on a case-by-case basis. Ensign argued that was wrong, citing the U.S. Supreme Court's May 30 decision to put Talwani's ruling in favor of a class of migrants on hold pending further appeals, which allowed the parole terminations to take effect. "As the Supreme Court has already implicitly recognized by a lopsided vote, the government is likely to prevail on appeal, either in this court or, if necessary, in the Supreme Court," he said. "This court should reject the plaintiffs' brazen request to defy the Supreme Court." The Biden administration, starting in 2022, let Venezuelans who entered the United States by air request a two-year parole if they passed security checks and had a U.S. financial sponsor. Biden expanded that to Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans in 2023. Ensign said Noem was legally entitled to categorically end those parole programs, saying she "profoundly disagrees" with the Biden administration's view that they were needed to alleviate pressures at the border and improve the overall immigration system. All three judges on the 1st Circuit panel were appointed by Democratic presidents. In May, before the Supreme Court acted, the panel declined to halt Talwani's order, saying Noem had not made a strong showing that her categorical termination of early grants of parole would be upheld on appeal. While liberal Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor publicly dissented in a lengthy opinion, the majority on the nine-member Supreme Court provided no reasoning for why it was staying Talwani's decision. U.S. Circuit Judge William Kayatta during Tuesday's argument said that placed him and his 1st Circuit colleagues in an "unusual situation" where they are asked to look to the Supreme Court for guidance on how to proceed and were given only the "bottom line." But he told Justin Cox, a lawyer for a group of migrants pursuing the class action before Talwani, that the justices' order may indicate they "felt that you're at the short end of the stick on the likelihood of success on the merits." Cox said the lack of reasoning in the Supreme Court's order was a reason not to defer to it, saying the 1st Circuit "would be speculating if it sought to assign a particular meaning to it." U.S. Circuit Judge Gustavo Gelpí predicted that even if the 1st Circuit upheld Talwani's decision, the Homeland Security Department could seek to again terminate the migrants' parole status through a new agency action. But Cox said a ruling in the plaintiffs' favor would still be "quite valuable" regardless. "At a minimum, it would let our clients and the class members have the dignity of leaving on their own terms, as opposed to being subjected to the kinds of removal and detention processes that are happening right now," he said. The case is Doe v. Noem, 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 25-1384. For the plaintiffs: Justin Cox of the Law Office of Justin B Cox For the United States: Drew Ensign of the U.S. Department of Justice Read more: US Supreme Court lets Trump revoke humanitarian legal status for migrants US appeals court rejects Trump bid to revoke thousands of migrants' status US judge to block Trump from revoking thousands of migrants' legal status
Reuters
20 hours ago
- Politics
- Reuters
US appeals court weighs Trump's authority to revoke legal status for thousands of migrants
July 29 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday urged a U.S. appeals court to rule that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem acted lawfully when she revoked the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans living in the United States. U.S. Department of Justice attorney Drew Ensign told a three-judge panel of the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that a lower-court judge had wrongly concluded Noem lacked the discretion to categorically end the immigration "parole" granted to approximately 430,000 migrants by Trump's Democratic predecessor Joe Biden. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, halted the agency's action on April 14, saying Noem could only revoke previously granted parole and work authorizations for migrants on a case-by-case basis. Ensign argued that was wrong, citing the U.S. Supreme Court's May 30 decision to put Talwani's ruling in favor of a class of migrants on hold pending further appeals, which allowed the parole terminations to take effect. "As the Supreme Court has already implicitly recognized by a lopsided vote, the government is likely to prevail on appeal, either in this court or, if necessary, in the Supreme Court," he said. "This court should reject the plaintiffs' brazen request to defy the Supreme Court." The Biden administration, starting in 2022, let Venezuelans who entered the United States by air request a two-year parole if they passed security checks and had a U.S. financial sponsor. Biden expanded that to Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans in 2023. Ensign said Noem was legally entitled to categorically end those parole programs, saying she "profoundly disagrees" with the Biden administration's view that they were needed to alleviate pressures at the border and improve the overall immigration system. All three judges on the 1st Circuit panel were appointed by Democratic presidents. In May, before the Supreme Court acted, the panel declined to halt Talwani's order, saying Noem had not made a strong showing that her categorical termination of early grants of parole would be upheld on appeal. While liberal Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor publicly dissented in a lengthy opinion, the majority on the nine-member Supreme Court provided no reasoning for why it was staying Talwani's decision. U.S. Circuit Judge William Kayatta during Tuesday's argument said that placed him and his 1st Circuit colleagues in an "unusual situation" where they are asked to look to the Supreme Court for guidance on how to proceed and were given only the "bottom line." But he told Justin Cox, a lawyer for a group of migrants pursuing the class action before Talwani, that the justices' order may indicate they "felt that you're at the short end of the stick on the likelihood of success on the merits." Cox said the lack of reasoning in the Supreme Court's order was a reason not to defer to it, saying the 1st Circuit "would be speculating if it sought to assign a particular meaning to it." U.S. Circuit Judge Gustavo Gelpí predicted that even if the 1st Circuit upheld Talwani's decision, the Homeland Security Department could seek to again terminate the migrants' parole status through a new agency action. But Cox said a ruling in the plaintiffs' favor would still be "quite valuable" regardless. "At a minimum, it would let our clients and the class members have the dignity of leaving on their own terms, as opposed to being subjected to the kinds of removal and detention processes that are happening right now," he said. The case is Doe v. Noem, 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 25-1384. For the plaintiffs: Justin Cox of the Law Office of Justin B Cox For the United States: Drew Ensign of the U.S. Department of Justice Read more: US Supreme Court lets Trump revoke humanitarian legal status for migrants US appeals court rejects Trump bid to revoke thousands of migrants' status US judge to block Trump from revoking thousands of migrants' legal status
The Irish Sun
a day ago
- The Irish Sun
‘First ever' mass shooting on Brit paradise island kills three & injures 10 in attack ‘unlike anything we've ever seen'
THREE people have died and ten injured after the "first ever" mass shooting on a British paradise island. The horror incident unfolded at a popular nightspot in the Turks and Caicos Islands in what authorities called the British territory's first mass shooting in recent history. 3 Three people have died and ten injured after the "first ever" mass shooting on a British paradise island Credit: Alamy 3 Three young men were killed and 10 others injured in the heinous shooting Credit: Getty Three young men were killed and 10 others injured in the heinous shooting. At least four suspects were involved in the incident early Sunday on the island of Providenciales, but no one has been arrested, Police Commissioner Fitz Bailey said, also calling it "deeply disturbing". Acting Gov. Anya Williams said the hospital in Providenciales was on lockdown to protect those being treated for their injuries. She said at least two of those injured were flown overseas for further treatment. And Premier Charles Washington Misick said how the island is "now having a gangland-type slaying," adding that "a lot of this gang violence seems to be concentrated in our Haitan communities". He called on the Haitian community to cooperate with cops, saying some of them know how guns are being smuggled into the Turks and Caicos Islands. Misick added: "What is happening here is unlike anything we've ever seen before. "This is not a situation we should accept." Most read in The Sun An estimated 10,900 Haitians live in the Turks and Caicos Islands, representing a third of the territory's population. Around 80 per cent of Haitians live in Providenciales, and 20 per cent have permanent residency, according to the UN. At least three dead in horror mass shooting after gunman opens fire at Bangkok market Meanwhile, a few months ago a family hid in terror as they watched a man in Costa Mujeres, Mexico. Across the first couple of days, Colin noticed some "sketchy" characters roaming the complex, offering illegal drugs and vapes. Colin told The Sun: "It's a relatively new complex, it's supposed to be one of the best ones you can go to in Mexico with TUI . "It was a nice first few days but there were some sketchy characters offering people drugs and vapes, which are illegal in Mexico, but they didn't have hotel wristbands on so we were cautious of them. "They were interacting with my daughter which I didn't like, and demanding services from the staff like free drinks and food. "But the staff were friendly with them it was as if they knew them." One morning Colin and his wife were relaxing by the poolside, while their daughter chilled up in the room. Read more on the Irish Sun Within seconds the tranquil atmosphere was shattered by the horrifying sounds of gunshots. "Shooting just erupted, I heard the gunshots first and everybody just dived down straight away," he said. 3 The horror incident unfolded at a popular nightspot in the Turks and Caicos Islands
