The controversy over Tyson Foods' hiring of asylum seekers

Summary

Planet Money: The Controversy Over Tyson Foods' Hiring of Asylum Seekers

Episode Release Date: February 27, 2025
Host/Author: Amanda Aronczyk and Carlos Garcia, NPR's Planet Money
Podcast: Planet Money by NPR

Introduction

In this episode of Planet Money, hosts Amanda Aronczyk and Carlos Garcia delve into the contentious practices of Tyson Foods, a major player in the meatpacking industry. The controversy centers around Tyson's simultaneous hiring of asylum seekers in New York City and the closure of a plant in Perry, Iowa, resulting in significant layoffs of American workers. This episode explores the economic, social, and personal ramifications of these actions, highlighting the broader debates on immigration and labor in the United States.

Background on Tyson Foods and Labor Practices

Tyson Foods is one of the largest meat processing companies in the country, employing approximately 120,000 individuals nationwide. The majority of Tyson's workforce comprises low-skilled positions such as meat washing, cutting, and packaging. These roles are characterized by a high turnover rate of about 40%, making constant recruitment a necessity for the company (03:00).

Simone Foxman, an equality reporter for Bloomberg News, provides insight into Tyson’s labor demands:

"These have an extraordinarily high turnover rate of about 40%. So from Tyson's perspective, they're constantly trying to fill these jobs." (01:31)

Hiring Asylum Seekers in New York City

In the spring preceding the episode's release, Tyson Foods initiated a hiring drive in New York City, targeting recent immigrants and asylum seekers. Partnering with tent, Partnership for Refugees, a non-profit organization that connects companies with refugees, Tyson aimed to fill low-skilled positions at their plant in Humboldt, Tennessee.

Simone Foxman reports on her firsthand experience covering this initiative:

"It was morning, it was extremely cold. But I will say, you know, it didn't look like anything super special." (02:47)

During these hiring events, applicants were interviewed and immediately offered jobs, with a significant number of hires over a few days. Tyson issued a press release emphasizing their commitment to diversity:

"We are proud to play our part in promoting a society that is welcoming and supportive of people from all backgrounds." (02:25)

Simultaneous Layoffs in Perry, Iowa

Concurrently, the Wall Street Journal published an article detailing Tyson’s decision to close its pork factory in Perry, Iowa, resulting in the layoff of nearly 1,200 workers in a town of approximately 8,000 residents (04:18). This closure sparked debates about whether Tyson was replacing American workers with cheaper immigrant labor.

Media and Political Reactions

The juxtaposition of hiring asylum seekers in New York while laying off workers in Iowa garnered significant media attention. A notable segment on Fox News featured Jesse Waters, who criticized Tyson’s actions:

"Every time an American is replaced with an illegal immigrant, it means that an American family loses a good family supporting wage. ... It is the decimation of the American middle class via illegal immigration and it's happening all over the country." (07:00)

This narrative led to calls for boycotts, divestments by conservative investment firms, and complaints filed by advocacy groups associated with the Trump campaign’s immigration advisors.

Personal Stories: Kamakaro and Jody Wells

Kamakaro: An Asylum Seeker’s Experience

One of the asylum seekers hired by Tyson, referred to as Kamakaro for anonymity, shares his journey from Venezuela to employment at Tyson’s Tennessee plant.

Kamakaro explains:

"I started to fear for my life, got to a point where I decided I needed to get out." (10:07)

After a perilous journey through the Darien Gap and months in Mexico, Kamakaro applied for asylum in the U.S. and was granted a work permit. Tyson offered him a position with a wage of $16.50 per hour, more than double Tennessee’s minimum wage, plus a $4,000 signing bonus and relocation assistance (12:12).

At the plant, Kamakaro found a supportive work environment, contrary to his fears:

"I've made some friends at work. Despite the language barriers, people even try to speak Spanish with us." (14:04)

However, his employment was short-lived as his contract was suspended in January, leaving him unemployed without explanation:

"They didn't give me an explanation. They said, we'll call you. You can apply again in six months." (26:25)

Jody Wells: An American Worker’s Perspective

Jody Wells, a long-time employee and union representative at the Perry, Iowa plant, provides a contrasting viewpoint. Having worked at Tyson since 1997, Jody experienced the plant's closure firsthand.

Reflecting on the layoffs, Jody recounts the emotional atmosphere:

"The last day was just so heartbreaking. I stayed till the last person walked out of the plant. It was just a lot of tears." (20:04)

Jody confirms that Tyson did offer relocation options to some employees:

"Yes, to Waterloo and Tennessee. It wasn't everybody. It was just a certain amount." (22:01)

However, she notes that most laid-off workers chose not to relocate due to personal ties and better local opportunities:

"Most people didn't want to go. They told me that the pay was going to be worse. And a lot of the people who worked at the plant have kids in school. They're settled. They don't want to pick up and move hours and hours away." (22:36)

Implications and Controversy

The simultaneous hiring and layoffs raised questions about Tyson’s employment practices:

1. Replacement of American Workers: Critics argue that Tyson is prioritizing cheaper immigrant labor over retaining American workers.
2. Economic Survival of Immigrants vs. American Workers: While immigrants like Kamakaro find vital employment opportunities, American workers in Perry face economic uncertainty.
3. Community Impact: The closure of the Perry plant significantly affects the local economy, leading to increased unemployment and business closures.

Jody Wells addresses the perceived conflict:

"They're here to support their family. How can I be mad at somebody if they're here to better their lives? I wouldn't want somebody preventing me from taking care of my kids." (24:56)

Tyson’s Responses and Workforce Dynamics

Tyson Foods maintains that their hiring practices are inclusive and lawful, emphasizing that all hired immigrants possess legal work permits. They assert that:

"Anyone who worked at that plant could get a job at a different location." (22:09)

Furthermore, Tyson highlights that immigrants form a substantial portion of their workforce:

"35% of our workforce are immigrants." (24:32)

The company’s pattern of opening and closing facilities indicates a business model reliant on fluctuating labor needs:

"Over the last decade, Tyson opened or expanded 17 facilities. But they also closed 18 of their large facilities." (26:48)

Conclusion

The Tyson Foods controversy underscores the complex interplay between immigration, labor economics, and community stability. While the company provides essential employment opportunities for asylum seekers, it concurrently impacts American workers through plant closures and job losses. This duality fuels ongoing debates about the role of immigration in the labor market and the responsibilities of large corporations towards both their domestic and international workforce.

Key Takeaways:

• Labor Market Dynamics: Tyson’s reliance on low-skilled labor with high turnover necessitates continuous recruitment, often leading to hiring immigrants.
• Economic Necessity vs. Ethical Concerns: While immigrants fill critical roles, the displacement of American workers raises ethical and economic concerns.
• Community and Personal Impact: Plant closures have profound effects on local economies and the lives of long-term employees.
• Corporate Responsibility: Tyson’s practices highlight the broader responsibilities corporations hold in balancing business needs with community welfare.

This episode of Planet Money provides a nuanced exploration of these issues, offering personal narratives to illustrate the broader economic and social implications of corporate hiring and layoff strategies.

Notable Quotes

• Simone Foxman (01:31):

  "These have an extraordinarily high turnover rate of about 40%. So from Tyson's perspective, they're constantly trying to fill these jobs."

• Jesse Waters (07:00):

  "Every time an American is replaced with an illegal immigrant, it means that an American family loses a good family supporting wage. ... It is the decimation of the American middle class via illegal immigration and it's happening all over the country."

• Kamakaro (14:04):

  "I'm sitting together in an apartment that I share with my wife and a couple other family members. There's not much here yet. A small table, few chairs, big TV, some video games."

• Jody Wells (20:40):

  "Oh, the last day was just so heartbreaking. I stayed till the last person walked out of the plant. It was just a lot of tears."

• Jody Wells (22:55):

  "They're here to support their family. How can I be mad at somebody if they're here to better their lives? I wouldn't want somebody preventing me from taking care of my kids."

---

Produced by Sam Yellow Horse Kessler with contributions from Emma Peaslee, edited by Keith Romer and Jess Jiang, engineered by Sina Lofredo, and fact-checked by Cierra Juarez. Executive Producer: Alex Goldmark.

Transcript

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[Planet Money Host]

This is Planet Money from NPR. So do you mind introducing yourself? Yeah.

[Simone Foxman]

I'm Simone Foxman. I'm an equality reporter for Bloomberg News.

[Planet Money Host]

So, like, what does that mean? What are you covering?

[Simone Foxman]

All the, like, completely uncontroversial topics. So inequality with respect to race, gender, religion, immigration at times.

[Planet Money Host]

So last March, Simone Foxman published an article on that last topic, immigration. And that story ended up exploding for a pretty unusual reason.

[Narrator]

She started working on the story in February. It was about Tyson Foods, the enormous company that makes chicken nuggets and ground beef and pork chops. They were in New York City to hire some of the migrants who had come to the US in the last few years.

[Planet Money Host]

What kind of job was Tyson hiring for?

[Simone Foxman]

Really low skilled jobs. And that's the vast majority of Tyson's workforce. Tyson employs about 120,000 people. Of them, about 100,000 are in these very low skilled jobs, jobs like washing meat, placing the cuts in the trays, all of those things. You don't need a ton of expertise in order to do them, but you need a lot of people.

[Planet Money Host]

And they really struggle to keep workers in a lot of these jobs.

[Simone Foxman]

These have an extraordinarily high turnover rate of about 40%. So from Tyson's perspective, they're constantly trying to fill these jobs.

[Planet Money Host]

The CEO of Tyson said that it had been even harder over the past few years with such a tight labor market. Unemployment has been historically low, sitting right around 4%.

[Narrator]

Now. This was all taking place at this moment when New York was receiving a huge influx of migrants. About 175,000 people had arrived. A lot of them were looking for work.

[Planet Money Host]

So to fill some of their open jobs, Tyson was working with a non profit called tent, Partnership for Refugees. They're like a matchmaker between large companies and recent immigrants and refugees.

[Simone Foxman]

We first heard about this program from both Tyson and tent and they were very excited to hire refugees, asylum seekers.

[Planet Money Host]

Tyson put out a press release that said, quote, we are proud to play our part in promoting a society that is welcoming and supportive of people from all backgrounds.

[Narrator]

So in February of last year, Simone goes to an office in Lower Manhattan. She's there to report on this meeting between a group of migrants from Mexico and Colombia and Venezuela and representatives from Tyson, the meat company.

[Simone Foxman]

It was morning, it was extremely cold. But I will say, you know, it didn't look like anything super special.

[Planet Money Host]

Right, right. If you'd walked by the building, you would have no clue what was going on there that day.

[Simone Foxman]

Absolutely, yeah.

[Narrator]

Inside there were translators and interviewers, some people from Tyson.

[Planet Money Host]

The potential employees were asked questions, given applications to fill in, and then on the spot, they were offered jobs at a chicken plant in Humboldt, Tennessee.

[Simone Foxman]

You know, I think there were 17 people hired. And ultimately the event sort of continued for the following couple of days, and that included 70 more people.

[Narrator]

The next week, Tyson did a few rounds of hiring in New York. Their stated goal was that they would hire 2,500 asylum seekers and refugees this way, some of whom would be added to the workforce at their plant in Tennessee, which was already a mix of American born workers and recent immigrants.

[Planet Money Host]

Simone, she watches all of this happen, does some more reporting, and then along with a colleague, she writes up a pretty standard article.

[Narrator]

The headline reads, tyson is hiring New York immigrants for jobs no one else wants.

[Planet Money Host]

This is where things start to go a little sideways. Because unbeknownst to Simone, another reporter, this one at the Wall Street Journal, was also working on an article about Tyson.

[Simone Foxman]

So I can only speak to what's factual here. Our story was published. At the same time there was another story published completely unrelated to the story.

[Narrator]

That Wall Street Journal article was not about adding workers, but about subtracting them. Tyson was closing a plant in Perry, Iowa, and laying off almost all of the roughly 1200 workers.

[Planet Money Host]

Now, if you look at these two articles side by side, you might wonder, was this just a coincidence? Or were these two stories actually one story? A story about one of the country's biggest meat processors forcing out American workers and replacing them with migrant workers. Hello and welcome to Planet Money. I'm Amanda Aronczyk.

[Narrator]

And I'm Carlos Garcia. The country is in the middle of a reckoning over immigration, in particular about the millions of people who came across the southern border in the past few years. This has been the largest influx of immigrants this country has ever seen. And it's raised questions about the impact of immigrant workers on American jobs.

[Planet Money Host]

Today on the show, we tell you the story of a controversy about these two Tyson plants. One staffing up with recent immigrants. Immigrants. The other shuttering and laying off hundreds of workers. And how that controversy looks to the people most affected by it. Workers at the two plants.

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[Planet Money Host]

A couple of days after these two articles ran, one in Bloomberg, one in the Wall Street Journal, there was a segment on Fox News Channel about them that drew parallels between the two stories about the Tyson plants.

[Jesse Waters]

Perry, Iowa is about to change drastically and not for the better.

[Narrator]

This is a clip of Jesse Waters from Fox.

[Jesse Waters]

This week, Tyson Foods announced that it will be permanently closing its pork factory in Perry, killing around 1200 jobs in a town of just 8000 people.

[Planet Money Host]

In Perry, Iowa, the company was laying people off. At the same time in New York City, Tyson was busy hiring.

[Jesse Waters]

Tyson Foods has its eyes on a different class of workers. The company is now offering new jobs to asylum seekers.

[Narrator]

The show then turns to an interview with then Ohio Senator and Now Vice President J.D. vance, who says that what Tyson is doing with these two factories is just one example of what he sees as a much larger problem.

[Jesse Waters]

Every time an American is replaced with an illegal immigrant, it means that an American family loses a good family supporting wage. It means that American companies are literally replacing our own citizens with people who work for slavery wages. That is not capitalism or a market economy, Jesse that is the decimation of the American middle class via illegal immigration and it's happening all over the country.

[Narrator]

This take went viral on social media. There was talk of a boycott of Tyson, a conservative investment firm divested from the company, and an advocacy group set up by Stephen Miller, the Trump campaign's main adviser on immigration, filed a number of complaints.

[Planet Money Host]

We reached out to Tyson to ask them about this controversy and they did not agree to an interview. But one of the things that they insisted on was that they only hire immigrants who have work permits and who can legally work in the U.S. while.

[Narrator]

Tyson didn't want to talk about hiring refugees and asylum seekers in New York, one of their new workers was willing to speak with us.

[Planet Money Host]

So a few months ago we visited that worker and his wife at their apartment in Tennessee. Amanda we brought some pastries and we started to talk to him about how he ended up here. We are calling him Kamakaro, which is a family name. He asked that we do not use his first name because he didn't want to risk losing his job by talking about all of this with reporters.

[Narrator]

Kamakaro, he's got this kind of hip haircut, and he's wearing a black I Heart NYC hoodie. We clearly woke them up, and he seemed a little tired at first.

[Planet Money Host]

We are sitting together in an apartment that he shares with his wife and a couple other family members. There's not much here yet. A small table, few chairs, big tv, some video games.

[Narrator]

Kamakaro told us he's from a pretty big city in Venezuela and that he was in New York for a few months when he was hired to work in Tennessee. He didn't really know what to expect. He pictured fields.

[Planet Money Host]

Fields? Fields, barns, cows, more fields, that kind of thing.

[Narrator]

But no, this is a small town. Topeka. Yeah.

[Planet Money Host]

He pictured something more like Topeka. Topeka.

[Narrator]

Topeka.

[Planet Money Host]

He said he'd never been to Topeka, but he'd love to go. Said he studied the US before coming here and read that Topeka was highly recommended. Sure.

[Narrator]

Now, when Kamakara was living in Venezuela back in the day, he worked for the Hugo Chavez government, and there was.

[Planet Money Host]

A lot of animosity between Venezuela and the US back then. So when we asked if he ever expected to live and work in the us, he. He was like, no way.

[Narrator]

Podria y imaginars.

[Planet Money Host]

But that is what happened. Over the past decade, Venezuela has had a mostly tanking economy, gone through a bunch of political upheaval. Kamacaro says he started to fear for his life, got to a point where he decided he needed to get out.

[Narrator]

To get to the US he made the trek through the Darien Gap, the notoriously dangerous 60 miles of rainforest between Colombia and Panama. He then got stuck in Mexico for a couple of months. Camacaro finally crossed the border to the US in October 2023. He applied for asylum and was given a work permit while he waits for his case to be heard.

[Planet Money Host]

Now, you may remember around this time that the governor of Texas was offering free bus rides out of Texas to cities all around the country, basically saying, migrants, you're welcome to take a bus. Kamakaro, he obviously took a ride to New York, and when he arrived, he got a bed in one of the giant tents the city had set up for migrants. He ended up moving around a few times, going from shelter to shelter.

[Narrator]

He'd spend some of his time going to churches and soup Kitchens. And he was given a lot of donations of clothing. They had too many clothes, so they would sell what they didn't need.

[Planet Money Host]

And with that money, he would buy food. He says he was doing what he could to get by. That is, of course, until he heard about the job with Tyson.

[Narrator]

Como suppo juste del trabajo and Tyson. He heard about it from a friend, went to an office building in Manhattan. He says there was an application drug test. They checked his work permit, and that.

[Planet Money Host]

Day, Kamakara was one of the people who got a job offer to move to Tennessee to cut up chickens. He'd be paid $16.50 an hour, which is the standard starting rate at that plant. And it is also more than twice the minimum wage in Tennessee. Plus, he was being given a $4,000 signing bonus. Tyson would also pay for his move and put him up in a motel for.

[Narrator]

He told his wife, I just signed. Come on, let's go. No turning back.

[Planet Money Host]

They hadn't really put down roots in New York. It was easy for them to pick up and move. They got on the long bus ride from New York to Tennessee. Was any of that fun?

[Narrator]

She liked it. I didn't like it.

[Planet Money Host]

His wife, she got the window seat on the bus. She got to see Washington D.C. and the Pentagon, famous for them from many an American action film.

[Narrator]

They get to Tennessee and are staying in the motel that Tyson set them up with. Finally, Camacaro has his first day at work. His first day was cold. He didn't know to bundle up. He was just in a T shirt and thought he might die of the cold.

[Planet Money Host]

And the work he ended up doing there was so repetitive. He makes this gesture of hanging up live chickens by their feet, attaching them to what is called a shackle conveyor, over and over and over again.

[Narrator]

That is the sound of his knuckles cracking. He says the pain goes to your elbows, your shoulders, your hands, that it got to a point where his hands hurt all the time.

[Planet Money Host]

Kamakaro had been worried that some of his American coworkers might be anti immigrant, but he says it has been the opposite. He's made some friends at work. Despite the language barriers. People even try to speak Spanish with them.

[Narrator]

Sure, they appear to only have learned swear words, but still, after a few.

[Planet Money Host]

Months, Kawakaro felt like he was settled in. He says it was a wildly good situation for him, especially given that less than a year earlier, he was living in a tent shelter in New York with thousands of others. He considers this a blessing.

[Narrator]

He says, think of all the migrants in New York right now, a lot of them don't have jobs. He says he's one of the privileged ones. He got a job.

[Planet Money Host]

Now, to be clear, this job is really dangerous. Aside from the repetitive work, there are lots of dangerous chemicals being used. There's machinery everywhere. Over the past decade, hundreds of workers have been injured on the job at Tyson plants around the country. And there have been a number of deaths as well.

[Narrator]

Now, we heard this and we were like, what kind of protections do workers have at the plant?

[Planet Money Host]

Has anyone mentioned a union, like organizing at work or anything like that? No.

[Narrator]

Yeah. No, nobody's mentioned like, any, any unions. And if there were unions, he, he wouldn't want to be a part of it. Yeah, he's like, it's better to just work and not have problems with anybody.

[Planet Money Host]

Not have problems with anybody because his situation is too precarious. Kama Karl he is coming from a totally different economic reality than his American coworkers. And he's not just supporting himself and his wife. He's also sending money back to Venezuela for his kids, his mother and sister.

[Narrator]

So he says he isn't going to complain about anything to his bosses. He's not going to join a union and he's not going to quit. The benefits of this job outweigh the negatives, the pain in his hands and the danger for him. This is reliable, well paid work.

[Planet Money Host]

Which might help explain why Tyson went to such great lengths to hire someone like Kamakaro. But was Tyson privileging immigrant workers over American workers? We will try to answer that after the break and get the inside story from someone who worked at the shuttered plant in Perry.

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[Narrator]

Sense of how the people being laid off in Perry, Iowa, understood what had happened. We called up someone who worked at that plant. Her name is Jody Wells.

[Planet Money Host]

So tell me, when did you, when did you first start working for Tyson?

[Jody Wells]

1997.

[Planet Money Host]

Okay, and what like, tell me a little bit about it. Like, was it, was it like a good job to get? Were you excited?

[Jody Wells]

I don't know if I was excited. I had three kids that I needed to take care of and I heard they paid better than most places in town.

[Planet Money Host]

Jodi's first job at the plant was doing membrane skinning, which was basically using a machine to slice the fat and shiny part off of the meat. Pretty quickly after getting there, she decided to join the union.

[Jody Wells]

I figured I needed some help cause I've always been mouthy.

[Narrator]

Jody thought maybe a union would help protect her from getting fired when she talked back or swore.

[Planet Money Host]

I really do want to know what your favorite curses are, but you don't have to tell me the F word.

[Jody Wells]

I love it. That's the one that got me in trouble all the time.

[Planet Money Host]

Anyway, about halfway through her time working at the plant, she went from being a full time line worker to a full time union employee. Her salary was paid for by the union, but even though she held this role, she didn't have any warning. When they announced that the plant was closing last year, she says everyone was called down to the cafeteria and at first it just seemed like they were going to have a big meeting.

[Jody Wells]

Well, when we first got there, we're all laughing and joking and you know, we're like family there.

[Narrator]

So then the managers passed around a stack of papers announcing the closing and.

[Jody Wells]

Then when they handed that out, you could see people tear up and get mad and they're asking, what do we do now? It was just like everybody was so sad and upset.

[Planet Money Host]

How were you?

[Jody Wells]

Oh, to be honest, I was pissed. That's the only nicest way I could put it, because I didn't feel like they needed to close down our plant.

[Narrator]

Jody says the layoffs were brutal. So many people worked at this plant. It was the town's biggest employer. They didn't know where they were going to go to find jobs.

[Planet Money Host]

At the time of the closing, Tyson said, this plant was built back in the early 1960s. It's old and inefficient. They just didn't need to keep it open any longer.

[Jody Wells]

Oh, the last day was just so heartbreaking. I stayed till the last person walked out of the plant. It was just a lot of tears. People wanting to keep their IDs for souvenirs. You know, all these people, they liked working there. A lot of them had been there for, you know, 10, 15, 20 years.

[Planet Money Host]

In a tiny town like Perry, Iowa, the biggest employer, closing its plant has had a lot of impact. The town has seen a big jump in unemployment claims. Several businesses have shut down while others are struggling. Plus, there has been a hit to local tax revenues.

[Narrator]

Because Jody worked for the union. She helped negotiate a plant closing agreement. Basically severance for the workers. They got $1,700, plus vacations and holidays paid out.

[Planet Money Host]

Now, the controversy over this made it sound like Tyson was giving opportunities to migrant workers while laying off American workers in Perry, that it was a kind of swap and that the Perry workers didn't get the same opportunity to go work in Tennessee.

[Narrator]

So we wanted to know, was that true?

[Planet Money Host]

Did Tyson offer to pay people to move elsewhere, relocate to work at a different plant?

[Jody Wells]

Yes, to Waterloo and Tennessee.

[Planet Money Host]

Oh, they did offer to let them move to Tennessee, correct?

[Jody Wells]

I don't recall the number, but it wasn't everybody. It was just a certain amount.

[Planet Money Host]

Tyson disputes this. They say anyone who worked at that plant could get a job at a different location. But either way, at least some of the Perry workers could have moved to work at the plant in Tennessee.

[Narrator]

But Jody says most people didn't want to go. They told her that the pay was going to be worse. And a lot of the people who worked at the plant have kids in school. They're settled. They like Perry. They don't want to pick up and move hours and hours away.

[Jody Wells]

I mean, it's a great town, friendly people. I think it's a nice little town.

[Narrator]

Tyson told a reporter that 200 of the roughly 1200 people laid off relocated to take jobs at other Tyson facilities.

[Planet Money Host]

And this might be another thing that made the migrant workers attractive to Tyson. They hadn't put down super deep roots, so they were willing to up and move to Tennessee to a plant where they needed workers.

[Narrator]

There was another implication of this controversy that we wanted to ask Jodi about.

[Planet Money Host]

I think one of the things about the two stories coming together is that the impression one is given of the plant in Perry is that it's like just a bunch of American workers and it's not a diverse place. Whereas this new plant in Tennessee is recruiting all these people who aren't Americans, you know, they're asylum seekers or migrants.

[Jody Wells]

Oh, no, we had, let's see, we had Hispanics from all over, Africans at one time. We had Bosnians, we had Burmese. I think it's Salvadorians, you know, people from all over.

[Narrator]

Perry, Iowa, also has a lot of recent immigrants living there, people who moved to Perry to work at the plant. Jody says when they would make printouts about the union, they had to use interpreters. They'd print everything out in a dozen languages.

[Planet Money Host]

The reality is that a lot of the people taking low paying jobs in this country are somewhere in the space between being immigrants and becoming Americans. Some people are not legally authorized to work in the U.S. some people have temporary work permits, some have green cards and are on a path to citizenship. And some are immigrants who have recently become American citizens.

[Narrator]

Tyson, for their part, has never made a secret of the fact that they hire from this range of people. They say that 35% of their workforce are immigrants.

[Planet Money Host]

There was this third implication of the controversy that we wanted to get Jody's take on, and that was the idea that the workers in Perry should resent the newly hired workers in Tennessee. How did you feel about Tyson hiring people who aren't American citizens?

[Jody Wells]

They're here to support their family. How can I be mad at somebody if they're. They're here to better their lives? I wouldn't want somebody preventing me from taking care of my kids.

[Planet Money Host]

When Fox News ran that segment about her plant, she said she didn't see it, but people sent her links to the video. They came up to her in stores to talk to her about it. It was hard to avoid.

[Jody Wells]

I know people are upset that they think that immigrants are taking people's jobs. But if you want to work at a Tyson, apply.

[Planet Money Host]

Jodi lost her job when the Tyson plant closed, but she got another job with her union, representing a different group of workers about an hour away from Perry.

[Narrator]

A few months after we went to Tennessee to speak with Kamakaro, the man from Venezuela who is working at the Tyson plant. We decided to check back in with him. Kamakaro says things at the plant got kind of chaotic for him for a while there. His friends had been telling him, we're worried about what will happen when President Trump takes office.

[Planet Money Host]

Who knows? Maybe they'd lose their work permits or they'd be deported or maybe Tyson would lay them off. Then in January, one of those worries came true for Kamakaro. Tyson told him that his contract was suspended. He did not have a job there anymore.

[Narrator]

He says, they didn't give me an explanation. They said, we'll call you. You can apply again in six months. They just told me what they told me.

[Planet Money Host]

After Kamakaro was laid off by Tyson, he got two jobs to make ends meet. Now we don't know if Kamakaro losing his job had anything to do with Trump's presidency. It might have just been that they didn't need as many workers right then.

[Narrator]

Yeah. Tyson is one of the largest meatpacking companies in the country. They have over 220 facilities and they are constantly opening and closing plants. Over the last decade, Tyson opened or expanded 17 facilities. A bacon plant, a distribution center, an incubation center. But they also closed 18 of their.

[Planet Money Host]

Large facilities, churning through workers, hiring groups of workers in one place, laying off another group of workers somewhere else seems to be baked into how the company does business. We asked Tyson why exactly they laid off Kamakaro, but they wouldn't say. Today's episode was produced by Sam Yellow Horse Kessler with help from Emma Peaslee, and it was edited by Keith Romer with help from Jess Jiang. It was engineered by Sina Lofredo and fact checked by Cierra Juarez. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

[Narrator]

Thanks to Just Capital for their help with research and to Alice Driver, Ricardo Pizzwiley, Stacy Preston, Rachel Wacker, and all of the people we spoke with while we were in Tennessee. Hi, I'm Carlos Garcia.

[Planet Money Host]

And I'm Amanda Aronchik. This is npr. Thanks for listening.

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