Summary
The 2019 ICE raids on Mississippi poultry plants, which detained 680 workers, have left the immigrant community in Morton scarred and fearful of renewed workplace raids under Trump, who plans mass deportations.
Residents recall the trauma, with children left stranded and families torn apart. Local businesses, reliant on immigrant workers, suffered economically, while poultry plants quickly resumed operations.
Activists and nonprofits are preparing families for potential detentions, emphasizing the economic and social impacts of such raids.
Many undocumented workers fear another round of disruptions and family separations.
In all honesty, the plan is likely not mass deportation, it’s increased fear combined with pandering to racist fans. Mass deportation would hurt the bottom line of too many important people. Undocumented immigrants don’t “do the work legal citizens aren’t willing to do” or “work harder than legal citizens”. Those are both racist liberal talking points. The reason they appear to work harder and do jobs that others don’t want to do is that the whole ecosystem of fear is designed to keep immigrants working jobs below minimum wage and/or in appalling working conditions.
If they really wanted to reduce illegal immigration, they could pass laws giving protection to any immigrants who report illegal working conditions. There would still end up being immigrants working in the “informal economy”, but at least big employers would have some risk.
majority of my life was spent as an illegal immigrant. i’ve been embedded in illegal immigrant communities my whole life. i’ve worked with many and have known many more
it’s my experience that both of those statements are true.
a) they do work citizens aren’t willing to do and b) they work harder
i can elaborate on why I believe those things are true, but absolutely if I’m looking for a laborer for specific types of work… I will always avoid the native-born citizen.
believe it or not there are many illegals that make wages higher than what most americans make.
there’s many types of illegal immigrants. there’s not one size fits all to make generalizations. but the majority of them are similar to oil drill workers.
a working class male goes far away to a labor-intensive job that nobody wants to do. they do this because they can make a relatively large salary and then use that money to do something back at home.
so for example Mexicans will come and work in construction. They can make upwards of $300+ a day of work with experience. this is many times more than what they could reasonably expect in Mexico. but not only that, they’re making more than many native born American citizens.
it’s just lower skilled Americans tend to flock to low salary and low effort jobs like retail or food service.
I work in the heart of agriculture in Central California. We only hire immigrants that have working visas or green cards… and there’s tons of them. My point is, this whole “no one will do the work and all the vegetables and fruits will just sit there and rot away!” is a bunch of bullshit. Illegal immigrants make up a very small portion of the overall working force out here. If anything, many companies (farms, packing sheds, distribution plants) won’t hire any undocumented workers because they typically disappear after getting paid.
I’ve worked all over the rust belt / bible belt in a little over a dozen states doing large construction projects. At least for my industry, the vast majority of the laborers are illegals. They don’t disappear after getting paid. I’ve worked with some regularly for over 5 years.
From what I’ve heard from people in California, your experience is not typical
So, if those illegals are removed (because you know, they’re here illegally) are you saying that those construction projects won’t get done? All construction will seize to exist? Nothing will get built? I mean, this is they way the left makes it sound… as if, we DON’T support illegal immigration, our country is doomed… and it’s ridiculous.