() JBS Foods told 200 workers at its Ottumwa, Iowa, plant that their visas are being revoked and they must leave the U.S., according to the town’s mayor.
The employees are from Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. Those countries were under a program that offered temporary legal status for those fleeing violence during the Biden administration.
In May, the Supreme Court allowed President Donald Trump to revoke the temporary legal status of more than 500,000 workers from those countries.
It is not clear if other groups of workers may also have their visas revoked.
Mayor Rick Johnson said he believed JBS was pursuing avenues to keep the workers in Iowa because of their skills. The plant employs about 2,500 workers.
He told the Des Moines Register that the loss would hurt the city’s economy. JBS is the largest employer in the area.
The United Food & Commercial Workers union representing the workers said the decision creates instability, harms local economies and threatens the food supply chain.
JBS is reportedly paying workers $1,000 each to help them self-deport to their home countries.
One of the largest meat processors, JBS also has a plant in Marshalltown, Iowa, and said earlier in the year it plans to build a $135 million sausage processing plant that will employ 500 people in Perry, Iowa.
Iowa is home to several pork and beef processing plants, including facilities run by Tyson Foods, Smithfield Foods and Iowa Premium Beef. The state leads the nation in pork and egg production and also produces large quantities of turkey, beef and milk.
In July, Trump said on a trip to Iowa that he would put farmers in charge of agricultural workers in the country illegally. But Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said there would be no amnesty for workers in agriculture.
Rollins pointed to the Medicaid cuts passed by Congress and said the jobs should be done by automation and American workers.
reached out to JBS for comment and has not yet heard back.
