Immigrants drive Nebraska's economy. Trump's mass deportations pledge is a threat

[riversedge]

Source: npr




January 17, 20251:28 PM ET Jasmine Garsd



LINCOLN, Neb. — Every so often, Al Juhnke, executive director of the Nebraska Pork Producers Association, says he'll get a phone call from one of his farmers about how to solve Nebraska's severe labor shortage..

It goes something like this: "Al, I got a great idea. Why don't we invite any immigrants? Legal, illegal … I don't care. Invite them to Nebraska because we have lots of openings out on our farm and we need help."

Juhnke smiles wearily as he tells the story.

Nebraska is one of the top meat producers in the U.S. It also has one of the worst labor shortages in the country. For every 100 jobs, there are only 39 workers, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Sponsor Message

Last January, the state's economic chamber released a report saying Nebraska had no choice but to welcome immigrants to "address the workforce gap."

Nebraska might need immigrants, but it also voted overwhelmingly for President-elect Donald Trump, who has threatened to carry out mass deportations of people living in the U.S. illegally.......................

Read more: https://www.npr.org/2025/01/17/g-s1-42134/immigration-trump-mass-deportation-nebraska-economy-workers

---

We have a somewhat similar situation here in WI were many immigrants are employed on the dairy farms. The locals just do not want to farm/milk cows--so the immigrants staff many farms.




https://bsky.app/profile/oceancalm.bsky.social/post/3lfxqb7xs6k2x

[sakabatou]

1. Nebraskans who voted for Dump: Why are the leopards eating our faces?!

[ananda]

3. And they thought they were getting Trumpcare...

and wouldn't believe it when they were told it was the
same as Obamacare.

Now they are about to lose it.

[Lovie777]

5. As Mr. Spock would say..................

illogical.

Red states usually vote against their own interest.

And then blame everyone else for they did.

[electric_blue68]

17. Well, the majority of white people. African-Americans not very much!

[Bengus81]

31. Got that right...I've been voting in Kansas since 1972

They vote against their best interest 99% of the time. But after Brownback nearly ran Kansas into bankruptcy they'll haul off and vote for a Dem for Governor, and a woman to boot to clean up the disaster. And Laura Kelly did just that.

A large number of counties out in the sticks vote 90/95% for Trump every time. They'll vote for Trump but it took a Biden to finally get their asses off of dial-up and onto HSI that most of have had for nearly 25 years.

[Ocelot II]

2. Hey, you leopards! Come to Nebraska, there's plenty of fresh meat!

[Irish_Dem]

4. If Nebraska can pony up big bribe money they will be fine.

[Bourgeois Liberal]

16. Bingo!

Same goes for companies which might be hurt by those proposed tariffs. Let Donnie wet his beak a little and they'll have nothing to worry about.

[Irish_Dem]

18. The tariff issues is looking like a big protection racket.

[dem4decades]

6. Nebraska, with any luck will get what it deserves.

[PortTack]

7. Raise your hand if you think these red states are EVER going to learn.👎🏿

[crud]

8. They won't be messing with red states...

Only gonna deport blue state immigrants. And Nebraskan's will be cheering it on.

[riversedge]

9. You are probably right on both counts.

[33taw]

24. They will attack the metropolitan areas and leave the rural (Red) communities alone.

Democratic Governors could seek the removal of undocumented immigrants in other parts of the state on their own if their cities at attacked.

[The Madcap]

37. They will flee the cities for the protected red areas

Taking those ag jobs. Then the red states will complain that they have even more illegal immigrants.

[33taw]

38. That's on Trump

[sop]

26. Look for California to be ground zero for Trump's Deportation plan, trying to wreck Newsom's economic record.

[Bengus81]

32. But..but he's raising their flags on Monday to appease da Fuhrer.........

[Cirsium]

40. Yes, they already have been

It is shocking to me how many people are still ignorant about the ongoing war against immigrants. Round ups, mass arrests and indefinite detention in privatized hell holes have already been happening on a large sale, and much of it has been in "red" areas.

"The U.S. government spends over three billion a year on the largest immigration detention apparatus in the world to detain and deport people who have lived in the U.S. for decades or who arrived recently seeking safety or a better life. People in detention experience inhumane conditions and rights abuses that include medical neglect, preventable deaths, punitive use of solitary confinement, lack of due process, obstructed access to legal counsel, and discriminatory and racist treatment. The numbers behind the immigration detention system provide a glimpse of the depths of inhumanity experienced on a daily basis by those in detention and the significant public costs, as more taxpayer dollars go towards private prison companies profiting each year off detention contracts. The numbers reiterate the urgent need to halt efforts to expand the system and phase out the use of immigration detention."

"There has been a 50% increase since March 2023 in ICE’s use of solitary confinement for people considered members of “vulnerable and special populations.” The average number of consecutive and cumulative days in solitary has more than doubled for this population, which ICE classifies as people who self-identify as LGBTI, have a serious mental or medical illness, are on a hunger strike, or are on suicide watch. In solitary confinement, which ICE refers to as “segregation,” people are isolated in small cells with minimal human contact for days, weeks, or years. The practice has a devastating psychological and physical impact, as The New York Times recently reported."

60% of the people in ICE custody are subject to “mandatory detention,” meaning they do not have a right to a bond hearing to make a case for release, which is basic due process. 90% of people in ICE custody are held in detention centers operated for profit by private companies as of July 2023. This is a 10 percent increase from the Trump administration. ICE’s oversight system permits abuse and stifles accountability, allowing for lucrative contracts to continue with impunity.

37,000 people are detained each day on average, an alarming 140% increase from the start of the Biden administration. ICE detained more than 260,000 people over the last year alone. This includes people who have lived in the U.S. for decades, parents of U.S. citizens, parents separated from their children, and people who arrived recently seeking asylum or a better life. People increasingly protest the abuses they face in detention. As of June 2024, hundreds of people in at least five different facilities were on hunger strikes. ICE often responds to protests with threats and physical force, using pepper spray, non-lethal bullets, and sending protesters to solitary confinement.

- from the The National Immigrant Justice Center
https://immigrantjustice.org/

Excerpts from the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children and the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service report focused on one of the detention centers:

• Hutto is a former criminal facility that still looks and feels like a prison, complete with razor wire and prison cells.

• Some families with young children have been detained in these facilities for up to two years.

• The majority of children detained in these facilities appeared to be under the age of 12.

• At night, children as young as six were separated from their parents.

• People in detention displayed widespread and obvious psychological trauma. Every woman we spoke with in a private setting cried.

• At Hutto pregnant women received inadequate prenatal care.

• Children detained at Hutto received one hour of schooling per day.

• Families at Hutto received no more than twenty minutes to go through the cafeteria line and feed their children and themselves.

• Children were frequently sick from the food and losing weight.

That is just a glimpse into what was going on from over ten years ago. It has gotten steadily worse under both Democratic and Republican administrations.

[crud]

41. Thank you for posting this.

[NickB79]

10. We're going to have food shortages across the nation by this time next year

Hope everyone is prepared.

[Justice matters.]

25. Nah.... with 25% stupid tariffs on everything, hyperinflation will...

drive customers away from their meat as nobody will afford to buy it: problem solved.

[Aristus]

11. Hey, Nebraska! Where's your nose?

Did you?…did you cut it off? You know, to spite your face?

Did Trump say nothing about deporting immigrants? The ones you rely on for your state’s economy?

Oh well.

Foxtrot Alpha, Foxtrot Oscar…

[JT45242]

12. Pay more...enough to make people do shit jobs in a shit state

If you paid enough people might be willing to come work for you... greedy bastard.

It might cut into your profits...but you might actually not cause food borne illness outbreaks and have fewer safety violations.

Of course, that solution would never occur to this guy who thinks that meat packing before the publishing of The Jungle was superior to today with all those pesky regulations.

[modrepub]

20. Not The Republican Way

Illegals will probably have to have part of their salary "garnished" to provide for the ICE inspector's "work schedule" so they can have certain "unpaid" holidays.

[Septua]

13. Stupidity rules in Trump world

Law 1: Everyone always and inevitably underestimates the number of stupid people in circulation

Law 2: The probability that a person is stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.

Law 3. A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or group of people when he or she does not benefit and may even suffer losses.

Law 4: Non-stupid people always underestimate the destructive power of stupid individuals.

Law 5: A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.

https://bonpote.com/en/the-5-basic-laws-of-human-stupidity/

[Nigrum Cattus]

14. It is not a threat

He will start in Chicago per the latest leaks. Presume that he
will expand to other blue cities. That will spook the undocumented
in the red states and they will leave in mass out of fear. Many
businesses will fold due to lack of cheap labor. There are plenty
of Americans to fill all the jobs, but not at the pay offered.

[Hekate]

15. "They voted overwhelmingly for Trump" -- FAFO, fellas

The only question I really have is this: How much money was spent by the Dems to advertise these facts to the voters of Nebraska? I know Dems talked about the “existential threat” and all (and it moved me) but given how little the farmers seem to have cared for that argument, did anyone seize them by their shirt fronts and scream that trump’s promised mass deportations were going to spell doom for their business?

[Bengus81]

33. Those farmers in Nebraska and Kansas in huge number will always vote for a Republican

I don't give a shit what a Democratic nominee does,says,promises etc during a campaign run OR a what Republican candidate has done or will do.

It took the GD Great Depression to get Kansas to vote for a Democrat--FDR...and they only did so for his first two terms. FDR lost Kansas in 1940 by 14% after putting the masses back to work and saving their collective asses.

BTW...Eloon,what do you and shrimp boat think about all those subsidy checks that farmers receive and have been receiving from the Federal Government for decades and decades?? Going to include those in your DOUCH report?

[keithbvadu2]

45. all those subsidy checks that farmers receive

[Bengus81]

47. LOL...thanks. I remember that cartoon from the tariff money well. Trump

quickly ponied $$BILLIONS for farmers when China said fuck you,we'll by grain elsewhere...and they did.

[twodogsbarking]

19. Trump will not listen to reason. If he does it is to do the opposite.

He tried to hang the VP

[Bengus81]

34. Happen to noticed Mike Pence's wife at the Carter funeral?

She went but wouldn't even look at Trump.

[modrepub]

21. If You're Claiming to be the "Law and Order" Party

Then why aren't you doing any meaningful enforcement to the business owners who are breaking the law by hiring illegal workers?!?

I'm sure some M$M journalist will ask this question at some point, right?

[Bengus81]

35. BINGO!! Exactly what I've been asking for years...............

[barbtries]

22. I don't recall where it was,

but within the past week or so I watched an interview with a farmer who had voted for trump. He flatly stated that if mass deportations occurred, we'd be out of food within a few days. A few days.

they don't believe he'll do that. they don't seem to understand that stephen miller is on the case.

[Aussie105]

23. Oh, don't worry!

Trump promised the red states he would look after them, and he wouldn't let them down, surely?

I mean, they voted for him, so now he is obliged to look after them, right?

Superfluous thingy:

Why are people so gullible?

Pre-election politics: Promise the Great Unwashed anything, just to get their vote.
After you win: Ignore them. Make excuses. Point out the promises are impractical, and you didn't really mean it. Anyway, get over it, you voters aren't that important.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

49. If you fail, blame Biden or the Deep State, or Nancy Pelosi . . .

or Checkers (Nixon's dog). Just DO NOT TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY OF YOUR FUCK UPS!!!

[samsingh]

27. Nebraska voted for Trump

[Eddie18]

28. perhaps moe. had it right

"And Nebraska is so flat ... that I don't care
I don't know jack but I stay sincere"

[gab13by13]

29. Trump will be selective

Trump will target undocumented immigrants in blue cities.

[pfitz59]

30. Chasing down undocumented folk will be an impossible task

Like catching water in a sieve. There is already an underground labor system that moves folk from farm to farm, factory to factory and construction site to construction site. A big freaking shell game. The 'low-hanging fruit' will be picked off in highly publicized raids, but only at great expense. The effort will be wide open to corruption and bribery on all sides. One enormous grift.

[moniss]

43. There was big bust here in Wisconsin several years ago of a

"labor provider" who had this whole big group of people that he had literally made his prisoners. They couldn't go anyplace or do anything.

[Emile]

36. Trump has been telling the media mass deportations start

on Tuesday in Chicago.

[IbogaProject]

39. Combination on over low minimum wage and Americans not willing to work hard

I'd say it comes down to Americans not willing to work hard at the way too low minimum wage. And many have exited the labor force and wallow on disability, drugs and/or crime. I had a friend who runs a 24 hour restaurant and he said with out immigrants he would have to close.

[moniss]

44. Kids today work in fast food restaurants

and never actually learn how to cook or prep anything. Your friend is 100% correct.

[moniss]

42. Yes for a long time now the bulk of American agriculture has

had a critical reliance on immigrant labor. It also goes into other industries as well. I was just at a big mega distribution center where the majority of truck loads are all mixed product and have to be hand unloaded and reloads are done much the same way in order to maximize the space available. The bulk of the orders are picked during the day and staged and ready for the workers to load by hand. Then 2nd shift comes in and loads. About 40 people or so. Each one looked Hispanic. God Bless those people working so hard doing this hard work. People who load and unload by hand are called "lumpers" in the trucking industry. The big grocery distribution centers use them as well as many of the big box retailers.

The next time anybody enjoys some sauerkraut (I don't want to know anybody who doesn't) we can thank immigrant labor. I see them in the cabbage fields doing all of that backbreaking work by hand. Pesticide exposure and all. I see them young and old out there working hard. They get paid way less than they should get and these big "raids" they have planned are a human disgrace.

[keithbvadu2]

46. Good news, Republicans. You get your jobs back that the immigrants took.

Now, get your welfare ass off the couch and get to work.

???

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

48. Awwww!

Is it too early to say "I TOLD YOU SO"?