Illegal immigration is a problem in our country, and it is exacerbated by all the hyperbole surrounding its causes and cures. It is my belief that the whole immigration issue will be a deciding factor in next fall’s election. It won’t be decided by a candidate’s age, nor history, nor hyperbole but what he, or she, will do about immigration.

Sometimes history is a great teacher. But when history is exaggerated, misread or misinterpreted, it’s not so good. For example, the current leading Republican candidate for President, Donald J. Trump (DJT), recently stated that he plans to use the Eisenhower model to carry out domestic deportation of illegal immigrants. This is in reference to a 1954 campaign to round up and expel Mexican immigrants under what was then known as “Operation Wetback,” an ethnic slur in any parlance. Under this deportation program, 13 million Mexican nationals were supposedly deported in order to give Korean War Veterans a better chance at jobs. Further, DJT refers to President Truman’s immigration program of deporting immigrants using a similar justification of creating jobs for returning WWII veterans.

Neither of these historical references are factual. An investigation of the files from the Truman and Eisenhower libraries reveals that during Truman’s nearly eight-year presidency, 127,000 were formally deported and more than 3.2 million left “voluntarily” rather than face deportation. Truman did not try to create jobs for returning veterans by ordering deportations. In fact, he signed legislation protecting the rights of Mexican migrant laborers. And, Eisenhower’s Operation Wetback resulted in 2.1 million, not 13 million, Mexicans being deported (Source: FactCheck.org).

Of more concern to me is the DJT draconian measures to “handle” millions of undocumented migrants each year. DJT advisor, and former White House aide, Stephen Miller, in a New York Times, Nov. 11, 2023, interview explained how a future DJT administration will build huge camps to incarcerate migrants while their cases are being processed awaiting deportation. A former President tried a similar tactic during WWII of rounding up and “housing” men, women and children of Japanese ancestry, which was viewed then and certainly now as a blight on America’s democratic ideals.

Further, DJT, according to Miller, is preparing an enormous expansion of a form of migrant removal that does not require due process, a bedrock principle of the rule of law. DJT plans to reinstate his ban on entry to the US of those from predominantly Muslim-majority nations. He is going to reimpose a COVID 19 era policy of refusing asylum claims from migrants who may be carrying infectious diseases like tuberculosis. Fact checkers debunked such claims. Legal immigrants and refugees are required to have medical examinations while they are still outside our borders and those diagnosed with TB or other diseases are not admitted. For many diseases like measles, diphtheria and polio, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica and Mexico have higher vaccination rates than the US. (Source: Pacific Standard, May 15, 2019)

Historically, our meat industry has always relied heavily on immigrant workers. First were the Eastern Europeans in the 1900s, to the Koreans in the 1950s, to the Vietnamese in the 1970’s and now the Hispanics in the 2000’s. Quite frankly, we would not have survived without these immigrants who are willing to work in a demanding, uncomfortable, wet, stinky, cold, loud environment for a minimum wage. And, without more of them in the future, our plants won’t be able to keep up with demand.

Factually, in the US, the number of jobs is limited by the available work force, rather than the other way around. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, since 2007 the U.S. labor force has increased by 14.6 million. Of those, additional workers, 7.8 million—more than half—were foreign born. And even that wasn’t enough!

Specifically, to the meat and poultry industry, the foreign born comprise nearly 50% of all workers in meat processing, dairy and food transportation. This current labor shortage has caused higher retail prices of meat and dairy for US consumers. If the US is to stabilize its food workforce—and thus stabilize prices—it must consider expanding temporary work programs and implementing other long-term reforms, including a path to citizenship for many of the undocumented farmworkers in the US today to address the labor needs of the meat, poultry and dairy industries (Source: American Immigration Council).

Can the Meat Industry Survive the Assault on Immigrants?

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