Producers Question What Happens After Foreign Workers Removed from Meat Processing Plant

Announcements about multi-million-dollar investments from companies that could provide new processing or packaging potential for area farmers can often bring optimism about increased demand opportunities and decreased travel costs. But one community in Iowa is faced with uncertainty about its workforce after an announcement from the Trump administration. And that uncertainty has spread to another community waiting for one of the company’s new plants to open.

U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley, the longtime Republican from Iowa who is one of the few active farmers in Congress, said what is happening in Ottumwa, Iowa, is “very significant.”

As American Farmland owner previously reported, The Trump administration notified about 200 employees of a JBS USA meat processing plant in Ottumwa, Iowa, that it was canceling their temporary visas to work in the country. The workers came to the United States from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela and had received legal authority during the Biden administration to hold employment in the U.S.

“From reports, it sounds like these workers were staying in the United States through a program called Temporary Protective Status,” Grassley said during a call with Iowa reporters. “It’s obvious by its name this program was meant to be temporary, and the Department of Homeland Security is responsible for designating and terminating temporary protective status.”

Senator Grassley: Wants Immigration Enforcement Efforts Focused on Dangerous Criminals

Grassley stressed that while the actions of the Trump administration to end the migrants’ temporary legal authority to have a job in the United States is permitted by law, he would prefer that immigrant agents prioritize removing dangerous criminals rather than target businesses connected to agriculture.

“I hope that we’re giving primary consideration to the deportation of people that are on the terrorist watch list or people that are human traffickers or people that are criminals, and I doubt we’ve got them all rounded up yet at this point,” Grassley said, “so I would encourage emphasis upon that.”

In May, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration could end the work visas. 

Iowa Plant’s Workforce to Lose 200 Migrants on Temporary Visas

The announcement for the employees at the Ottumwa plant that their work visas would end means that they would have to leave the country. The actions by the Trump administration raised concerns about two hours northwest.

As American Farmland Owner previously reported, JBS USA plans to build a pork sausage processing plant in Perry, Iowa. U.S. Representative Zach Nunn, a Republican who represents the region, said that he is working with JBS USA to minimize business disruption from the removal of the workers in Ottumwa, and he is also looking at whether similar actions by the Trump administration could impact staffing at the planned Perry plant.

RELATED: This is why pork producers were excited to hear about the JBS USA plans to build a pork sausage plant in Perry, Iowa.

According to the Iowa Capital Dispatch, Nunn said, “We work very closely to make sure that there is no slowdown in production, either for the sellers who are taking their meat to market, or for the buyers.”

Trump Administration Ending Biden Plans for Temporary Foreign Workers

The Trump administration sent a statement to NBC News about the actions involving the employees at the Ottumwa plant. The actions concern two federal programs: Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and the Processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans (CHNV Parole Program).

They were humanitarian programs under the Biden administration to allow migrants from the four countries to have temporary legal status in the United States for two years. The programs allowed more than 500,000 migrants to live in the country during the designated period.

A spokesperson for President Trump said in a statement about program cancelations by the administration, “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."

RELATED: This dairy industry leader proposed some ideas on what he thinks could be a path forward for allowing some migrants to remain in the United States and work in agriculture.