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.
