Trucks offload cattle at the JBS meatpacking plant in Greeley, Colo.
Photographer: Chet Strange/Bloomberg
Cheap US Beef at Risk as Trump Seeks to Deport Haitian Workers
Plans for the biggest deportations in US history threaten to upend the meatpacking industry
In the past year, JBS SA, the world’s biggest beef producer, relied more and more on Haitian migrants to work the line at its sprawling meatpacking plant in Greeley, Colorado.
The Brazilian meat giant gave them jobs after former President Joe Biden extended their temporary protected status, and roughly 1,000 Haitians now work at the plant, union representatives say. (JBS disputes this estimate.) They’re part of the latest wave of immigrants to take on the grueling, dangerous task of butchering cattle at meatpacking plants across the country, ensuring Americans have plentiful, affordable beef. Right now, it’s fully legal for them to work, but that could change soon under President Donald Trump.