Latest / Buzzkill, presented by REAP/SOW / Update: Immigrant meatpacking workers are still under threat

Transcript

Update: Immigrant meatpacking workers are still under threat · Buzzkill, presented by REAP/SOW

• REAP/SOW EP 26 TRANSCRIPT In February, FERN senior editor Ted Genoways investigated how JBS, the world’s largest meat producer, had come to rely heavily on Haitian migrants and other refugees at its plant in Greeley, Colorado. His reporting shined a light on a burgeoning food economy in the United States, one that is shifting away from undocumented labor and relying on immigrant workers with legal, but often tenuous, status. Despite a series of legal challenges, TPS for Haitians is now set to expire early next year, and JBS has already begun firing workers—as many as 400 in the last nine months, according to union officials. In this podcast update, produced in partnership with Reveal, Genoways describes a scramble by some Haitian workers to remain in the country, and JBS’s efforts to replace them with Somali refugees, a population whose TBS statues is still active. Teresa Cotsirilos: You're listening to REAP/SOW, dispatches from the frontlines of food, farming, and the environment. I'm your host, Teresa Cotsirilos. [silence] Our food system is dependent on immigrant workers, and the Trump administration's immigration crackdown could destabilize it from farm to table. The undocumented farm workers who pick your produce have been chased down in the fields. The asylum seekers who wait on you at restaurants have been arrested at their hearings. Then there are workers with temporary protected status, or TPS, a program that extends legal protections to immigrants whose home countries are too dangerous to return to. Thousands of TPS recipients work in meatpacking. In the past few months, the administration has stripped many of them of their status, leaving them vulnerable to deportation. [pause 00:01:00] Teresa: FERN senior editor Ted Genoways has been reporting on TPS recipients in meatpacking for years. For many of them, Trump's deportation threat is compounding years of mistreatment. These workers have been overworked, underpaid, and in some cases, trafficked. Earlier this year, Ted published a big investigation into all this with our partners at Reveal. In the months since, his sources have been through so much that Ted just had to revisit their story. I'll let Reveal host Al Letson take it from here. Al Letson: From the Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, this is Reveal. I'm Al Letson. Tchelly Moise was expecting this call. Ted Genoways: Hey, Tchelly. It's Ted Genoways. Tchelly Moise: Hey, man. How's it going? Al: Ted is a reporter with the Food and Environment Reporting Network, and he's been trying to reach Tchelly for almost 24 hours ever since he heard the news out of the Trump administration. Tchelly: I can tell you honestly, this is the first time I feel like this is really happening for real. Al: Tchelly is Haitian and has what's called temporary protected status, or TPS. It gives Tchelly the right to live and work in the US legally because Haiti is considered too dangerous to go back to. On February 20th, all of that changed. Reporter 2: Now, despite the ongoing violence in their home country, the Trump administration is canceling an extension of temporary protected status for half a million Haitians. Al: Haiti has been in turmoil for centuries. It suffered through colonialism, harsh dictators, natural disasters, including a devastating earthquake in 2010 that it never fully recovered from. Food and water is still scarce, and over the last several years, more than 15,000 people have been killed in gang violence. It's led many Haitians to flee the country. Tchelly was one of them. He nearly died after being shot in the chest during a robbery. The situation in Haiti felt dire. Tchelly: I was thinking maybe because they know what is going on in Haiti, it's not logically possible to just cancel TPS for the Haitians. Al: Tchelly says he doesn't know anyone who is planning to leave the country, at least not willingly. Tchelly: I don't think no one is going to get on a plane and say, "Hey, I'm going back home." I don't think this is going to happen. I think people are going to try everything but leaving this country unless they get arrested by ICE. Al: Tchelly knows a lot of Haitians. That's because he's a union representative for workers at one of the largest meatpacking plants in the country. It's owned by JBS, the largest meat producer in the world. At one point not so long ago, the union says the plant in Greeley employed more than 1,200 Haitian migrants, just over a third of the workforce. The company has been accused of trafficking these workers, luring them in with the promise of good jobs and a place to live. Instead, the work was dangerous and the living conditions harsh. Reporter 3: Immigrants at a meatpacking plant in Greeley say they were victims of a bait-and-switch scheme. Al: Tchelly says he saw firsthand how people were being treated. It's why he left JBS and started working at the union that represents the workers to try and fight back and improve conditions. They had made some gains, bringing national attention to the situation and forcing the company to respond. Now after going through all of that, the workers are among the more than 300,000 Haitians who could be forced out of the US. Tchelly: We're talking about Haitians that have had TPS since 2010. Al: We first told you about these Haitian workers back in February when President Trump had just taken office for his second term, and so much has changed since then that we decided to revisit that episode and update you about what's happened since. To start, Ted Genoways, of the Food and Environment Reporting Network, reminds us how these people ended up working at a meatpacking plant in the first place. Ted: It all started with a TikTok video. Mackenson Remy: [Creole language] I said, "Good news for good news because I got assurance when you're coming, you're going to have a job." Ted: The man in the video is Mackenson Remy. Mackenson is originally from Haiti. He's in his 30s with braided hair and a thin beard. He's been living in the US for almost a decade now and moved to Colorado in 2023. At that time, he began making TikTok videos about job openings in the area for his few followers, mostly other Haitians. None of them got that much attention until this one. Mackenson: [Creole language] Ted: The video opens with Mackenson driving through the parking lot of a huge meatpacking plant, speaking in his native Creole. There are industrial truck beds, people wearing hard hats and reflective vests, and a giant red and white logo on the side of the building reads, "JBS." Mackenson: That job, they pay good. [Creole language] They pay $22 and $23 an hour. Ted: Meatpacking work is hard, and Mackenson makes it clear in the video. He tells his followers, "This isn't a job for lazy people or people who don't like the cold." Mackenson: [Creole language] Ted: He adds, "Speaking English is not a job requirement." If his followers come, Mackenson says he even knows a place for them to sta. If you're interested- Mackenson: [Creole language] I say, you can text me, tell me when you want to come because I already know if you came, you can have a job. Ted: Mackenson posted the video that night, and when he woke up the next morning- Mackenson: The video has been viral. Ted: -it had gone viral. Less than a year after posting that video, Tchelly's Union, the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7, would issue a formal complaint to the government accusing Mackenson and JBS of human trafficking. I've found that to keep its profits high, JBS has a track record of recruiting new immigrants who are desperate for work in the United States. Over the last 20 years, the company has been the subject of more than 100 lawsuits, EEOC complaints, and government investigations over its working conditions. Mackenson says he didn't know very much about JBS when he made the TikTok video. Everything he shared with his followers, he says he learned from Edmond Ebah. Edmond Ebah: My name is Edmond Ebah. I'm from Benin, West Africa. I work at JBS plant in Greeley in Colorado. Ted: This is a promo video of Edmond posted to the JBS Facebook page. Edmond: There is nothing I can say make my work hard because I'm happy to do what I'm doing. Ted: Lots of soft focus and slow motion. It cuts from scene to scene; Edmond driving a van, Edmond walking through the plant, Edmond making coffee, then it ends with Edmond sitting in an office. Edmond: I applied to HR because I speak seven language and I can help people come to work for JBS. Ted: The video fades to white. Text appears saying, "Edmond has helped more than 30 people find a new life path with JBS USA." [music] Ted: Now speaking seven languages is never not an asset for any job, but it's especially useful at JBS because nearly all the people Edmond has hired are immigrants. There are over 3,000 employees working at the plant in Greeley and the union representing those employees says between 80% and 90% are immigrants. JBS is hardly unique. Nationally, the meatpacking industry is overwhelmingly dependent on immigrant labor, but Mackenson didn't know this. He says he was even a little surprised when he first met Edmond. Mackenson: When I met him, it's like, I think he's a white guy. It's like, "Oh, you look like my people." He said, "Yes. I'm from Benin." I said, "Oh, nice. I'm from Haiti." Ted: Mackenson met Edmond the same day he made the video and Edmond told him they had 60 jobs on the line available, jobs slaughtering, butchering, and packaging the meat. He's also the one who told Mackenson about the pay, the benefits, and the fact that workers didn't need to speak English. [music] Ted: Mackenson's other videos on TikTok got maybe a few dozen views at most. The one he posted about the JBS job had 35,000 views the next day, and the messages started pouring in. This was way more people than expected, and there are only 60 positions available. He texts Edmond. Mackenson: I sent the screenshot for him, show him how many people watched the video. Ted: He says Edmond didn't seem at all fazed. He just gave Mackenson a new number of available positions. Mackenson: He said even 100 or 200 people, he can help them out. Ted: This surprised Mackenson, but it doesn't surprise me. Turnover in the meatpacking industry is incredibly high, an estimated 40% each year. That's because the work is grueling and extremely dangerous. That's been the case since the earliest days of industrial meatpacking at the turn of the 20th century. People burn out and are injured all the time. The Haitians who responded to Mackenson needed work and were enticed by the high pay. Plus, Mackenson had said he could help them find a place to stay, but he had never expected this kind of response. Mackenson: I just scared because when I see a lot of people text me and I didn't know where they're going to live. Ted: Soon, he gets a text from Edmond promising that the new hires will be staying at a motel near the plant for two weeks, free of charge. Mackenson: Then after, I remember he called me. He said, "Hey, listen, we got a place for them. Don't worry, let them come. Let them come. Ted: They came. Mackenson: Hey, my boss, I'm with the guy. I'm waiting for the other one. I'm at the airport right now. Ted: This is a voice memo Mackenson sent to Edmond from the Denver airport. It was December 2023, and he was picking up some of the first Haitians to arrive. Mackenson: Boss, you see the last guy I sent it to? This is him ticket. He's already booked the ticket. Ted: Edmond directed him to bring everyone to a place called the Rainbow Motel. It sits right off a highway about a mile from the JBS plant. Much like other budget motels, there's not much to it. Tiny rooms, mismatched furniture, some plastic chairs out front. No pool, but there is a fenced-off square of astroturf, and yes, there is a neon rainbow on the roof. There were dozens of Haitians who came to Greeley that first month, and Mackenson quickly became their point person for almost everything. Mackenson says he would sometimes stick around Greeley for a few days to drive people, to get anything they needed, food from Walmart, coats from Goodwill. It was becoming a lot. Mackenson: Boss, this work is hard for me, boss. It's harder. I have to explain everything with them. Ted: Here's another one of those voice memos to Edmond. Mackenson: A lot of people want to come on this job, man. I got people, bro. I told you I'm an influencer, bro. That's why they trust me, bro. They really trust me, bro. Ted: Mackenson says he would charge each person he picked up at the Denver airport $120 to make the two-and-a-half-hour trip from Greeley and back. He also charged for the rides to Walmart and Goodwill, but Mackenson said what he really wanted was to be hired by JBS, and he asked Edmond to connect him with his boss. Mackenson: He said, "Okay, no problem. Be patient." When the second group came, I talked to him about the same thing. He told me the same thing, "You have to be patient." Ted: Were you being paid by JBS? Mackenson: Nothing. JBS never paid me for anything. Ted: Still, people kept coming, 100, 200, more. Even though Mackenson was frustrated with Edmond and JBS, he kept telling himself that at the end of the day, he was doing something good, helping his fellow Haitians find a better life, people like Auguste. That's not his real name. We've given him an alias because he's worried about retaliation from JBS. Auguste: [foreign language] Ted: Auguste came to the US from Haiti in 2023. Auguste: [foreign language] Ted: He calls it an epic experience, and by all accounts, it was. Auguste: [foreign language] Ted: He first flew to Brazil in March 2023 and set off north, traveling across 10 different countries. Auguste: [foreign language] Ted: The journey included crossing the Darién Gap, a 60-mile expanse of thick rainforest at the Colombia-Panama border. Auguste walked thousands of miles. Auguste: [foreign language] Ted: He says he slept on the jungle floor, woken up by the sounds of wild animals in the night. Auguste: [foreign language] Ted: Auguste tells me he was always on guard because people warned him of armed thieves along the way who would rob people, or worse. Auguste: [foreign language] Ted: Then, of course, there were the dead. Auguste says he saw bodies along the way of people who would never finish the journey. It took a month, but he finally made it to Mexico, where Auguste immediately applied to enter the US legally via temporary protected status, TPS for short. It's a rigorous process. He was fingerprinted as part of a background check. His cheek was swabbed for medical screening. Finally, his application was approved. Auguste entered the US in the spring of 2023. Auguste: [foreign language] Ted: Today, there are more than 200,000 Haitians in the US under TPS, making them one of the largest groups with that status. Auguste spent six months waiting for work authorization, often going hungry. Auguste: [foreign language] Ted: Auguste tells me it's easier to live without food than it is without hope. Then he heard about Mackenson's video. Auguste: [foreign language] Ted: He was living in Baltimore and struggling to find work. A friend of his already moved to Greeley and got hired by JBS. He told Auguste the job was legit, so Auguste decided to go, too. Auguste: [foreign language] Ted: When he arrived in Colorado, he was taken straight to the Rainbow Motel. The room was pretty small, just big enough to walk around a full-size bed. One bathroom, no closet, a mini fridge, and to his surprise, Auguste learned he would be sharing this room. Auguste: [foreign language] Ted: He tells me there were five, six, seven, sometimes eight people in one room. Auguste was sleeping on the floor. Auguste: [foreign language] Ted: He tells me it was hard to live this way. When was that? Tchelly: [foreign language] Auguste: [foreign language] Tchelly: December 2023. Ted: That's Tchelly, translating for Auguste. We're sitting together in an office at the union. Tchelly never lived at the Rainbow Motel, but he saw what was happening there. Tchelly: Well, me, I wasn't, I would say, not a victim of the process, but I was a direct witness to the process. Ted: It's part of the reason he left his job at JBS and went to work for the union instead. Tchelly: This is extremely bad. When you go to the Rainbow Motel and you have eight people inside of one little motel room with one bed, one bathroom, women and men at the same time, so no privacy. When people have to use the bathroom, it was a very bad situation. Ted: There was also nowhere to make food. The motel was off a busy highway with no grocery stores, no restaurants, nothing around for miles. Tchelly: We've had people saying, "I was starving for two to three days because I don't know where to go get food." Ted: The people brought to live in the Rainbow Motel were in a strange place with little to no money. Many didn't speak English. Plus it was December and freezing outside. Tchelly says people felt stranded. The motel has 17 rooms and at the peak, Mackenson counted over 100 Haitians staying there at once. It got so packed at one point that Tchelly says Edmond was forced to rent a house nearby, but conditions there weren't any better. Tchelly: There were around 40 people living inside of the house. I'm saying people sleeping on the floor, on the blankets, people everywhere. At some point, they didn't have electricity in the house and it was winter. Ted: Auguste was one of the people living there. After a week and a half in the motel, he spent five months in this unfurnished house. People living there were charged $60 to $70 a week. Auguste: [foreign language] Ted: He says at least in the house, they had a kitchen. There may be a line of people waiting to use it, but at least it was there. [music] Ted: Meanwhile, Auguste and his housemates were still expected to go to work. These jobs are essentially like working on a disassembly line, like a standard factory run in reverse. The whole cow walks off the back of a cattle trailer and is slaughtered, then broken down into steaks and roasts and ribs and hamburger meat. This work is done with things like power knives and bone saws, tools meant to cut flesh and bone. It's no surprise that this can lead to injuries. I've talked to dozens of people over my career who have lost fingers or had hands crushed by grinders. I remember one man who was a gut snatcher, which is exactly what it sounds like. The gut snatcher pulls all the guts out of the animal while the spine splitter cuts through the vertebrae with a bone saw. This time they got out of sync. The spine splitter went too soon and the gut snatcher lost four of his fingers. Stories like these are common across the industry. According to data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA, jobs at meatpacking and poultry companies are consistently among the most dangerous. Workers at JBS and their union say the speed of the line makes serious injuries like amputation more commonplace. The profits that companies like JBS make depend on how much meat they remove and how fast. Around the same time this new crop of Haitian workers was hired, JBS had introduced its aptly named White Bone Program. Kim Cordova: This is a program where what the company is trying to do is get as much of the meat and product off of a bone. It's literally like a white bone. Ted: This is Kim Cordova, president of UFCW7, the Greeley Plant Union. She says the White Bone Program meant more cutting, more repetition, more exertion, and all at a dizzying speed. Kim: The line speeds were really increasing to line speeds we had never seen before. Ted: Almost all of the Haitian workers were put on the same evening shift from about 2:00 to 11:00 PM, B shift. Tchelly says B shift had faster speeds than the day shift. Tchelly: Way faster. We have people that have been working at the plant for 10, 15 years, and they can tell us they have never seen any chain speed going over 390. Ted: That's 390 head of cattle per hour. Typically, workers on the day shift rarely saw speeds above 300 per hour. Tchelly: Right now, you're having 420. At some point, we had 430. Ted: That's roughly 35,000 cows a week. Kim: Workers are really put at risk for their safety because it is so fast. [music] Ted: Kim says people were getting injured. Union members were going to JBS management almost every day, telling them to slow things down because this wasn't safe. Tchelly: Sometimes they would bring it from 420 to 410, which is still unacceptable. Ted: It wasn't just the chain speed. Kim: This new group of workers were being forced to sign documents in languages that they don't speak, in English, actually, that waived their rights or abandoned their injury claims. Ted: Workers' medical cards were being kept from them. Kim: Medical bills not being paid. Ted: Workers' mail was being withheld. Kim: The supervisor had total control of their US mail. Ted: Haitians were being treated differently than other workers. Tchelly: If I ask for a break to go to the bathroom, I will not get it. Ted: Meanwhile, Auguste and his fellow Haitians would go back to a so-called home with little to no food, a line for the bathroom, and only the floor to sleep on. Auguste: [foreign language] Ted: Auguste tells me every day at work, he couldn't help but notice- Auguste: [foreign language] Ted: -that each cow had its own little cage. Auguste: [foreign language] Ted: He was expected to share a tiny space with five, six, seven, eight of his coworkers. It was darkly ironic, but he found himself thinking the cows had it better. What does that make you think as you see that the cows are treated better than the workers? Tchelly: [foreign language] Auguste: [foreign language] Tchelly: He say, "It even made me think about the past. I feel like I was being treated as a slave." If we need to take a break, we can. [music] Al: Coming up, JBS is forced to respond. Ted: They told the union that they'd never heard the name Mackenson, that they didn't believe that there was such a person. Mackenson: They lie. Al: That's up next on Reveal. From the Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, this is Reveal. I'm Al Letson. In September 2024, JBS made national news. The Wall Street Journal published a story about a new wave of Haitian workers at JBS and the terrible living conditions they found in Greeley, Colorado. The headline read, "Life for Haitian Immigrants: Jobs Nobody Wants and Sleeping on the Floor." Mackenson Remy was featured heavily throughout alongside allegations of exploitation from the very Haitians he thought he was helping. Mackenson: Those Haitian, most of them, they hate me. They think I make money from them. Al: Some workers alleged that Mackenson was working for JBS and getting paid for how many people he brought to Greeley. Mackenson: Some of them, they said JBS give me $3,000 for each of them. Al: Mackenson denies all of this. Mackenson: I charge people to take them at the airport, and I charge people if they need services. I didn't charge anyone for job. No, I'm not a criminal. Al: Mackenson says he was following directions from Edmond Ebah, the HR supervisor with JBS. Edmond was the one who told him to bring people to the Rainbow Motel. Mackenson doesn't deny knowing how many people were packed in each room, but he says he never heard anyone complain, at least not to him, but dozens of complaints were made to the UFCW7, the union representing the JBS plant in Greeley. Now, Mackenson's name was in the news alongside all those allegations. Mackenson: I just like doing that for my people. I didn't get money from anyone. When they see me, they talk very badly about me. It's very stressful for me. [music] Al: Ted Genoways, a reporter with the Food and Environment Reporting Network, has been covering the meatpacking industry for over a decade. In that time, he's watched JBS get sued again and again for allegations of workplace discrimination, wage suppression, and unfair hiring practices. All the while, JBS continues to grow dramatically. The company made $77 billion in 2024. Here's Ted again. Ted: The union had raised concerns to JBS about the squalid living conditions long before The Wall Street Journal article came out. JBS had told the UFCW7 that it was investigating, but the union didn't hear anything for months. Now, with these allegations made public, JBS was forced to respond. As I'm sure you know, JBS claims that they had no knowledge of this system. Tchelly: I've seen that. Ted: This is Tchelly Moise again, the union rep with UFCW7. Tchelly: The spokesperson from JBS that said, "Any allegations are completely unacceptable." This is the exact word that I think I've seen online. Ted: Here are the exact words that a spokeswoman for JBS sent in an email to The Wall Street Journal. She said the company found "reports about living conditions unacceptable and alarming." Tchelly: What exactly is unacceptable? Is it the allegations or the actual situation that was going on? Ted: In that same email to The Wall Street Journal, JBS says it wants all of its employees to have access to safe housing. The company fired the two HR managers above Edmond, and Edmond was moved to a different facility. The company says it also put in new training programs that teach employees about proper recruitment. JBS maintains that their leadership didn't know what was happening at the Rainbow Motel, something Tchelly finds really hard to believe. Tchelly: It is really hard for anyone from JBS to deny what was happening when they had someone from that plant supervising those people every day, assigning them room, and filling out application for them. It's really hard for you to deny when you're directly involved like that. Ted: I've seen the texts to Mackenson that prove at least Edmond knew. Mackenson: If JBS said they didn't know anything about the motel, they lie. I got the text message from Edmond. Ted: Edmond asked Mackenson, who was being checked into the Rainbow Motel. Mackenson replied with five, six names to a room. At one point in January 2024, Mackenson sent a list of nearly 50 people staying in 9 rooms. After The Wall Street Journal article came out, Edmond abruptly cut ties with Mackenson. I tried to reach Edmond many times, even dropping by his house. Mary Anne: Edmond? Ted: I'm Ted Genoways. This is my wife, Mary Anne. We were just hoping to talk to you for a few minutes if you've got time. Edmond: I get your text message. I'm going to respond to you. Trust me, we will have a conversation. Ted: He never got back to me and instead, directed me to a company spokesperson. JBS did eventually send me a short email in response to the many questions I sent them from my reporting. Their statement repeats much of what they sent the Journal. They want all employees to have access to safe housing. They've hired new HR leaders and put in place new recruitment training programs. The company says they've taken the situation very seriously, but ultimately, deny any involvement. JBS says it conducted two separate investigations and "no substantiated evidence was provided that tied Edmond Ebah or company leadership to the claims outlined by the union." They did not respond to the fact that I've seen the text messages and phone calls between Edmond and Mackenson. JBS just underscored that Mackenson never worked for the company. After the "alarming allegations came out," they say they banned him from the plant. In response to the reports of dangerously fast line speeds, JBS simply said it follows the law. The email ends with, "At JBS, we have best-in-class workforce eligibility, safety, and compliance standards." The union is still demanding answers. Here's Kim Cordova again, president of the UFCW7. Kim: We have been dealing with what we believe is human trafficking and exploitation of these workers. Ted: In 2024, the union filed complaints with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA, and the National Labor Relations Board alleging exactly that. Kim says these Haitian migrants at JBS were brought here under false pretenses. They were promised a job and a place to stay, but the job wasn't just hard, it was unsafe. This wasn't proper housing. They were sleeping on the floor of a tiny motel room with a bunch of strangers sharing one bathroom and little to no food. The complaint calls this abuse of workers, and it says that JBS's investigations into this treatment were "a whitewash." Kim believes she knows how we got here. Kim: The one thing COVID did was shed the light on what I call the dark secret of the packing industry. It exposed everything. Ted: Back during the pandemic, US meatworkers were considered essential. After meatpacking plants across the country were forced to close, then President Trump ordered them to reopen. Even though the JBS plant in Greeley didn't have COVID safety protocols in place, it brought workers back to the line. OSHA fined JBS for "failing to protect employees from exposure to the coronavirus." If you watched Last Week Tonight, you probably heard John Oliver talk about it back then. John Oliver: After six workers from a JBS plant in Colorado died from COVID, the company's total fine was just $15,000. Ted: $15,000 was just 0.00003% of the company's revenue at the time. John: If you fine a company a fraction of a percent of their profits, don't be surprised when they carry on only giving a fraction of a [beep] about the welfare of their workers. Ted: Kim says this started a huge fight between the company and its workers. Kim: We started to see workers mobilize, stand up, fight back. There were walk-offs not just here but around the country. Workers were not going to die for their job. Ted: This not only led to more personal protective equipment. It also led to a new contract. The union had pressed the CEO for higher wages and better benefits and won. Kim: Workers got stronger, in my opinion, and I think that that's what has sparked some of the change. Ted: Kim says shortly after they renegotiated that contract with the CEO, he retired and was replaced. Then came a wave of firings among union workers. Then came the White Bone program and hundreds of brand-new Haitian workers. The UFCW7 complaint to the Department of Labor says, "The plant increased chain speeds to dangerously unsafe levels when these workers occupied the line." Kim: In our opinion, they needed a new group of workers to come in so that they had more control over them, especially to work at this high speed. Ted: Tchelly says he thinks the company just saw an opportunity and took it. Tchelly: Big companies like that, one of the first goal is to make money. Unfortunately, most of the time, it doesn't matter how this money is made. It doesn't matter what cost. [music] Ted: Auguste still works at JBS. After about six months, he was able to save enough money to move into his own place with his own bed and bathroom, but it all comes with a cost. As far as we know, the White Bone program is still going on. Auguste: [foreign language] Ted: Auguste told me he can no longer fully close his left hand, an injury he believes is a result of his work being too fast and too repetitive. Despite everything, though, Auguste says he's still glad to be here- Auguste: [foreign language] Ted: -because his life is stable now, and he just hopes things continue to get better. Then came the second Trump administration. Donald Trump: We will begin the largest deportation operation in American history. Ted: On the campaign trail, Trump promised to deport an unprecedented 15 to 20 million people and said he would direct federal agencies to go after undocumented immigrants, but he also promised to go after immigrants here legally by ending programs like temporary protected status. Newscaster: You would revoke the temporary protected status? Donald: Absolutely. I'd revoke it and I'd bring them back to their country. Tchelly: Going back to Haiti is a death sentence, really. Ted: Tchelly Moise again. Tchelly: The biggest issue is not the deportation itself. The biggest issue is what is going to happen after the deportation because most of us, not to say all of us, we left the country obviously because it was very bad. You're talking to some members at the plane and they are telling you, "Man, my cousin just got killed today. My family members, they just burned some house." It's getting worse every day. You really don't know where it's going to get. It's really bad. [music] Ted: The New York Times has been tracking deportations and has found that the Trump administration is on pace to deport more than 400,000 people this year. While that's far less than Trump's campaign trail promised, the government's tactics are disrupting communities across the country and a lot of what's happening is unprecedented. There have been aggressive immigration raids in the recent past, but they usually focused on workplaces like meat packing plants. Newscaster 2: Federal officials said today that yesterday's immigration raids at six meat packing plants were the largest workplace crackdown ever. Ted: In May of 2006, then President George W. Bush addressed the nation with promises of a new immigration policy. Part of that policy was to find and deport undocumented workers. On December 12th of that year, he made good on that promise. Immigration and Customs Enforcement carried out a coordinated raid of meat packing plants across the middle of the country. They were all run by Swift and Company, the world's second largest beef producer at the time. Armed ICE officers arrested and deported nearly 1,300 undocumented workers at these plants. Here's Mark Lauritsen, then Vice President of the UFCW, speaking with PBS at the time. Mark Lauritsen: That one small community, the school district still held 25 children, some as young as six years old, because their parents were not around to pick them up. They were in a bus someplace to points unknown. Ted: The Swift plants were located all across the country, places like Cactus, Texas, Grand Island, Nebraska, Marshalltown, Iowa, and Greeley, Colorado. In the Greeley plant alone, 220 undocumented workers were detained. After the raid, production came to a screeching halt. Though they were able to get things moving again, it was never back at the level it was before the raids. Within a year, Swift was forced to shut down and sell the plant. The buyer? JBS. Now you have to wonder, will JBS and the thousands of immigrants it employs meet a similar fate? Kim: This workforce is an immigrant workforce. Ted: Union President Kim Cordova again. She says at one point there were 57 languages spoken at the Greeley plant alone. Kim: JBS is the largest food producer in the world. The industry would collapse without these type of workers. Ted: The Trump campaign promised it would lower grocery prices, but deporting the workforce that meatpackers depend on would halt processing at every stage of the supply chain, from feedlots to the packinghouse floor. This would drive up prices for Big Macs and Outback steaks, but also for chicken breasts and pork chops at grocery stores. Tchelly says that's why deporting all these people doesn't make any sense. Tchelly: I feel like us, the immigrants, we are a good part of the economy. Like I said, most of the jobs that we are doing, people who were born in this country were not in line to do those jobs. They're not actively looking to do those jobs. Ted: This is why Tchelly says he's confused. If mass deportations hurt not only JBS, but the economy as a whole, why do it? He says he's left with only one answer. Tchelly: I think it's just hatred against people with different skin color, because that's the only logical thing that I can actually see. Deporting everyone, I don't see how he can benefit, honestly. I don't see. [music] Al: Up next, we fast forward to the present day to see how ending TPS is impacting Tchelly and the other workers. Tchelly: I'm coming here to work, so there is definitely some frustration as far as why this is happening to me. Al: That's coming up on Reveal. [music] Al: From the Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, this is Reveal. I'm Al Letson. Today, we're returning to a story we first brought you in February, back when President Trump was weeks away from fulfilling a promise to not just go after undocumented immigrants, but to also target people living in the country legally. Newscaster 3: It's a really scary time for the Haitian community as the federal government has set a deadline for deportation. The pressure is now on to find answers and do them fast. Al: Haitians with temporary protected status were told to leave the US by August 3rd, but a federal judge intervened and extended that deadline to February 2026. This is the second time the Trump administration has attempted to end TPS for Haitians. During Trump's first term, the White House claimed Haiti was once again safe and people could return. Several groups sued, arguing that Haitians were being racially targeted and TPS remained in place. This time around, the administration says it's ending TPS because Haitian gangs could be using the program to enter the US and threaten our national security. Only the Department of Homeland Security has offered no proof this is happening. Once again, several groups are suing the government to keep TPS in place. Tchelly says all of this is frustrating because not only are people like him not in gangs, they came here to get away from the gangs. Tchelly: We are not really criminals. A lot of us in this country, we've never really had not even a speeding ticket. I'm coming here to work, so there is definitely some frustration as far as why this is happening to me. Al: Ted Genoways of the Food and Environment Reporting Network has been keeping up with the Haitian workers at JBS, and he's joining me now to update us on where things stand. Welcome back, Ted. Ted: Thanks, Al. Al: Okay. First things first, what's happening with the workers at the plant in Greeley, Colorado? Do they still have their jobs? Ted: Tchelly was telling us that since February, JBS has fired somewhere between 300 and 400 workers at the plant in Greeley. The union says that's about a third of the Haitians hired in the last year or so. Tchelly: The company called them in, and they let them know that unfortunately, we have to stop working. Ted: The union says the workers were given 30 days to give the company documentation that proves they could continue to legally work in the US. Tchelly: Well, if not, they would have no option than to fire them. Ted: Many of these people ran to Tchelly asking where else they could find work. Tchelly: "What else can I do to make money?" "Can I apply for Uber? Can I do DoorDash?" This kind of stuff. Al: Wait, if TPS doesn't expire until February, how is the company able to fire all these people already? Ted: Well, when you're working on TPS or other immigration programs, you're given the right to apply for a work permit. Then once you get the permit, you have to keep renewing it. Some of these workers had let their permits expire. In the past, the company probably wouldn't have been as aggressive about enforcing that paperwork, but because the Trump administration has put Haitian workers under scrutiny, companies like JBS are being more vigilant and asking more questions. It usually goes something like this. Bryce Downer: HR reaches out to me to say, "Hey, listen, we're covering our [beep] here." Ted: This is Bryce Downer. Bryce: "You're going to have to provide us with evidence of your authorization to be able to be employed, otherwise, you'll have to be terminated." Ted: Bryce is an immigration lawyer with Novo Legal and has been working on cases for these workers. In theory, he says, an employer could allow time for these employees to figure out their work status, but the company risks being hit with penalties. Bryce says companies like JBS simply aren't willing to do that. Bryce: It is a very difficult time right now for immigration attorneys that are counseling these employers because, generally speaking, they're incredibly conservative. Zero liability, zero risk. Al: Losing 400 workers in just a few months still seems like a big problem. Isn't that impacting production? Ted: I actually asked JBS about the number of Haitian workers that were fired, and they said they don't track workers based on national origin. In a written statement, a spokesperson said that the company is focused on hiring people legally authorized to work in the United States and would continue to follow the guidance provided by the government. As for the workers that were fired, JBS said that if people can prove their status has changed, they would be eligible to be rehired. The company said, "At this point in time, our facilities are operating normally and our production levels remain unchanged." When I read that last line to Tchelly, he didn't argue with it. Tchelly: I would say that this is exactly right because before they let someone go, there's already someone there to replace them, so production is not really affected. Ted: According to the union, JBS has mostly been replacing Haitian workers with Somali workers, another immigrant population whose TPS is still active, at least for now. Bryce says the industry has always turned to immigrant populations because, for the most part, Americans are just not willing to take these jobs. Bryce: Who's the next most vulnerable community in line? Ted: Basically, JBS has been jumping from one immigrant group to another for years. As we heard in our original story, the way the company treats these workers has been under a lot of scrutiny, and complaints over unsafe working conditions at the plant continue. Al: Let's talk about that. What happened with the complaint Tchelly's union filed, the one accusing JBS and Mackenson of human trafficking? Ted: Right. The National Labor Relations Board is the government body that was supposed to be investigating this complaint, but in January, right after taking office, Trump fired two members of the board, leaving them without a working quorum, effectively killing any investigations. He finally announced new appointees just recently, but they haven't been confirmed yet. Even if the nominees are appointed, it's possible that the Haitians in Greeley could be scheduled for deportation before any investigation can even be completed. For its part, JBS has continued to insist that it thoroughly investigated and found no evidence that showed its employees were involved in trafficking Haitian workers. Al: Ted, oftentimes, these companies justify using immigrant labor like this as a way to keep grocery prices low. It's something that President Trump even promised to do when he was on the campaign trail. I can't help but to wonder what this all means for the price of meat. Ted: Right. The price of beef has increased 14% since August of last year. It's such a steep increase that consumers are actually starting to cut back on buying beef, which historically, just never happens. At the same time, JBS, along with three other companies, are being sued for allegedly manipulating the market. The claim is that big beef packers like JBS have a monopoly on beef and are artificially inflating prices. I think this underscores just how big and powerful JBS really is. Al: I guess when you're this big, it's pretty easy to fire a few hundred Haitians just like that. Ted: Yes, just like that. Al, that hasn't been the story for everyone. Auguste and Tchelly are both still working in Greeley, and it looks like they will be able to continue for the foreseeable future. Al: How so? Ted: US immigration law is confusing, always, and it's especially confusing right now. When your livelihood depends on it, you get pretty savvy pretty fast. Auguste and Tchelly got new work permits, but those will expire in February when TPS is supposed to end for Haitians. They also did something else. They applied for asylum, which means that even if TPS gets rescinded, they may still be able to stay in the US as they wait for their asylum cases to be decided. It's a bit of a gamble because the Trump administration has been trying to limit the rights of asylum seekers, but in theory, it's another shot at a green card and even citizenship. Now, there are so many Haitians who don't have that kind of second chance. Tchelly has spoken to many of them, and he says some tell him they will try to go to Canada, but most of them plan to just lay low and wait for another job, another court ruling, or even another president. Tchelly: I can only wait, and I can only hope things get better. We hope something better comes. Al: It's such a tough situation. Ted, thanks so much for updating us about what's happened since you first reported that story. Ted: It's good to talk to you, Al. Al: That was Ted Genoways, a reporter with the Food and Environment Reporting Network. [music] [silence] Teresa: Special thanks to Reveal for their work on this episode. Reveal's lead producer for this show was Nadia Hamdan. Field production in Greeley, Colorado, was done by Mary Anne Andrei. Jenny Casas and Cynthia Rodriguez edited this show with help from Maddie Oatman. Special thanks to Florence Rousier for help with translation. Chastity Hale did the fact check. Legal review by James Chadwick, Victoria Baranetsky, and James Hoopt. Reveal's production manager is Zulema Cobb. The score and sound design was done by Jim Briggs and Fernando Arruda. They had help from Claire Mullem. Reveal's interim executive producers are Taki Telonidis and Brett Myers. Their theme music is by Camerado Lightning. REAP/SOW is a production of the Food and Environment Reporting Network. Our executive producers are Theodore Ross, Tom Laskawy, and Brent Cunningham. Our sound engineer is Lauren Newson. Our audio and video producer is Katie Gardner. I'm your host, Teresa Cotsirilos. FERN News is our home on YouTube. Find out more about FERN and donate to support our independent nonprofit reporting at www.thefern.org.