‘It’s a strain on everybody’: Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has factories collapsing

Donald Trump’s stricter immigration policies are putting heavy pressure on American factories, causing major labor shortages and disrupting production, according to workers and union representatives. This crackdown has pushed out experienced foreign workers, creating serious challenges for large industrial companies.

The administration’s actions include attempts to take away legal status from more than a million immigrants, particularly by ending programs like the Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans (CHNV) Parole Program, which previously allowed hundreds of thousands to work legally in the U.S. At the same time, immigration arrests have increased, with a possible target of up to 3,000 arrests per day.

According to The Guardian, these measures are having widespread effects across many parts of the U.S. economy. This includes food services, hospitality, construction, transportation, and caregiving, all of which rely heavily on immigrant workers to keep running smoothly.

Trump’s policies are hurting us at home

At a GE Appliances factory in Louisville, Kentucky, more than 125 workers were suddenly let go in the spring due to canceled programs under the new immigration policies. Losing so many workers at once disrupted production across different shifts and buildings, making it difficult to fill assembly line jobs and causing confusion. There are fears that even more workers could lose their jobs in the coming months, as hundreds of union members may be fired if protected status is revoked for people from Haiti.

Jess Reese, a replacement operator at the plant and organizer for IUE-CWA Local 83761, said, “In three different buildings, on a couple of different shifts, stewards reported that they lost production so they weren’t able to make all the products they were supposed to make. It was hard to cover certain job tasks on the assembly line, and so that created chaos, and it was just hard to get things done.”

Similarly, at a Kraft Heinz plant in Holland, Michigan, employees say they have been forced to work much longer hours. This major food company, which produces well-known brands, has lost experienced workers who had been there for decades after their work permits were suddenly revoked. “That just puts a strain on everybody,” one employee said, with other employees now having to operate multiple machines when normally only one person would handle each one.

We’ve heard that ICE is hunting people like animals, but we rarely hear about how it hurts our economy. However, anyone who understand staffing knows this is a bad thing for factories and farms, despite republicans pretending its not bad.

Managers and supervisors are also under more stress, with some canceling vacations because there aren’t enough workers to keep things running. The demanding schedules, including 12 to 14 hour shifts, have raised serious safety concerns, with reports of employees falling asleep on the production line. A Kraft Heinz statement said the labor shortages at the plant were not due to immigration policy changes and that overtime was due to high demand during busy seasons. However, the company did not say how many workers were lost because of the policy shifts.