December 11, 2024 01:03 PM UTC

So You Like Meat, Do You? Ready To Slaughter It Yourself?

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• by: Colorado Pols

Axios reports on the looming threat of President re-elect Donald Trump’s promised campaign of mass deportations to begin when he retakes office on January 20th, in particular how it could effect the nation’s vital and immigrant labor-dependent meatpacking industry–which could directly affect the conservative Colorado city of Greeley, home to thousands of such workers staffing the vast JBS beef packing plant:

The meatpacking industry in Colorado and nationwide is bracing for the fallout of mass deportations proposed under President-elect Trump, trade experts tell Axios.

Why it matters: Meatpacking — more than almost any other industry in this country — relies on foreign-born labor, documented or not. It would face critical challenges if those workers disappeared…

Greeley is the seat and largest city in conservative Weld County, one of the last conservative strongholds in a state whose urban areas have mostly flipped blue in recent elections. But now that they’ve succeeded against the majority of Colorado voters’ wishes and Trump will be President again, the consequences of their preference are coming home to roost:

State of play: Many in the meatpacking and livestock industry were happy to see Trump reelected, giving his campaign nearly double what they donated to back Vice President Kamala Harris. But they’re also fearful it won’t be able to operate without the workers he’s threatened to deport. [Pols emphasis]

The largely immigrant workforce in the meatpacking plants of northeast Colorado has sacrificed a great deal over the years to provide Americans with the steady supply of meat products that our unhealthy diets demand. During the COVID-19 pandemic, readers will recall, meatpacking plant workers were forced back to work despite a wave of infections and deaths after Trump declared the plants to be essential infrastructure. In 2016 in nearby Fort Morgan, nearly two hundred Somali Muslim workers at a Cargill meatpacking plant were fired for taking prayer breaks, for which the company eventually paid almost $2 million in a discrimination case settlement.

If the moral consequences of persecuting an essential workforce aren’t enough for you, consider the practical effect of packing plants forced to close or curtail meat production due to a lack of workers. After Trump won on a promise to bring prices down for American consumers, between deporting the workforce responsible for producing the bulk of the nation’s food supply and starting tariff wars with the rest of the world including Canada and Mexico, the possibility of price increases dwarfing the inflation of the post-COVID era are now on the horizon.

In Colorado, the politician most likely to be squeezed by this policy conflict is freshman Rep.-elect Gabe Evans, who is set to represent Greeley in Congress starting next month and ran for office with enthusiastic support for Trump’s plans for mass deportation. Evans will be the one left holding the bag with voters in his swing district for both the humanitarian harm resulting from the deportations to Greeley as well as the potential price hikes to consumers everywhere that could result. When questioned about his support for Trump’s mass deportation plans before his election, Evans tried to draw a distinction between the deportation of “criminals” versus law-abiding immigrants that Trump himself rarely if ever has bothered to. That puts Evans on the hook for everything Trump does in excess of Evans’ qualifiers.

Either way, don’t tell us about Democrats trying to “outlaw your cheeseburger” again. Donald Trump could end up being the greatest threat to your cheeseburger of our lifetimes.