As Donald Trump pushes forward with an aggressive deportation campaign, operations by ICE are bringing entire sectors to their knees. The most striking case is in Omaha, Nebraska, where 75 workers suspected of being undocumented were arrested at the Glenn Valley Foods plant, causing a near-total halt in operations.
According to company president Chad Hartmann, production at the facility plummeted by 80% within just 24 hours. In addition to the arrests, several employees chose not to return out of fear. Hartmann described the situation as creating an “operational hole” that will be difficult to fill quickly. Glenn Valley, which supplies beef and chicken to restaurants and grocery stores, is urgently seeking new workers, but with no guarantees.
The damage, however, extends far beyond the facility gates. Industry analysts and livestock traders fear a domino effect: if companies can’t process meat, demand stalls, and the entire supply chain slows down. All this is happening in an already fragile context, with beef prices at historic highs and U.S. cattle herds at their lowest level in 70 years due to prolonged drought.
Matt Wiegand, a broker at FuturesOne, reported a growing sense of uncertainty, with cattle futures under pressure during the raid itself. Meanwhile, according to Julie Anna Potts of the Meat Institute, the largest U.S. trade association for the meat industry, based in Virginia, the sector has been suffering from a severe labor shortage for years, worsened during the pandemic when many plants were forced to shut down.
The problem runs deep. More than half of all workers in slaughterhouses and meat-packing plants are immigrants, many of them undocumented. According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, an independent think tank focused on progressive economic policies, without this “invisible” labor force, the entire industry’s stability is at risk.
The Glenn Valley case has also reignited debate around E-Verify, the federal database used to check workers’ legal status. The Department of Homeland Security has confirmed that there is currently no more effective tool than this system.
Meanwhile, tensions are rising across the country: protests have been reported in Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York, and Chicago. According to migrant rights groups, the raids are also affecting other labor-intensive sectors such as construction, logistics, and textiles. This, despite undocumented immigrants making up only roughly 5% of the U.S. workforce–but nevertheless, a vital one.
