CORRECTION, March 20, 2024: This article has been altered and its headline changed to correct a number of errors from its original form.
Tyson presently employs 42,000 immigrants and is interested in up to 42,000 more. The number in the original headline was incorrect.
Portions of article also reported that Tyson planned to hire “illegal immigrants.” Tyson, however, at no time suggested a plan to hire illegal immigrants per se. The poultry company has chosen to work with the Tent Partnership for Refugees which connects refugees with companies looking to hire, but denies any plans to hire workers the company classifies as “illegal immigrants.”
The Western Journal apologizes to Tyson and our readers for any confusion resulting from our original comments.
One of the major reasons that conservatives and right-wing thinkers oppose mass immigration is the disruption it causes to the native labor market.
It’s very common that when swaths of unskilled laborers come across the border, American workers will see negative effects in response.
That’s exactly what’s occurring as Tyson Foods laid off 1,300 staffers between their poultry- and meat-processing plants in Iowa, Virginia, Arkansas, Indiana and Missouri while intending to hire thousands of immigrants in New York, as reported by Daily Mail.
The company is offering a $16.50 hourly pay to New York workers alongside free immigration lawyers, showing their clear intent to get non-American applicants.
The company already employs a whopping 42,000 immigrants within its 120,000 American workforce, but wants to increase that.
Garrett Dolan, who leads the meat company’s social efforts, recently stated in an interview with Bloomberg they “would like to employ another 42,000 if we could find them.”
Dolan noted that many new hires “are going to come from refugees and immigrants, so we’re now in the business of strategically thinking that through.”
He claimed that the migrants will fill the vacancies in the plants that reportedly have a high turnover rate.
This potential favoritism has not gone unnoticed. Conservatives have rallied behind a boycott of the company while America First Legal, a conservative action group, threatens potential legal action against the company.
“It is ILLEGAL under federal law to discriminate against American citizens based on their citizenship in favor of non-citizens of any kind when it comes to employment,” the group warned online.
DID YOU KNOW?
It is ILLEGAL under federal law to discriminate against American citizens based on their citizenship in favor of non-citizens of any kind when it comes to employment. https://t.co/W1tYImfpG7
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) March 15, 2024
Of course many liberals attempt to argue for practices that employ aliens – sometimes even illegal aliens – over American citizens.
A common idea is that illegals only fill jobs that U.S. citizens do not want, something reflected in a Pew Research poll from 2020.
But the situation with Tyson shows that’s not the case as the company just laid off 1,300 employees before it announced its intent to hire more migrants. According to the Daily Mail, those hires will be refugees and asylum seekers. Whether those refugees and asylum seekers came through legal channels, however, isn’t clear even though Tyson vehemently denies they would hire illegals.
Additionally, perhaps if the poultry company used the resources it’s putting toward hiring immigrants it could be employing citizens instead.
According to the Bloomberg interview, “Tyson is also investing in retaining immigrant workers, having earmarked $1.5 million a year for legal aid services.” One wonders if that $1.5 million were reallocated to 401k matching or other benefits, might more Americans be applying for some of these positions.
To be clear, conservatives shouldn’t anti-immigration. We like legal, educated, moral, pro-Western, pro-American immigrants who assimilate here and keep their money here.
But those are often not the immigrants that the left cares most about. When was the last time you heard anyone on the left caterwaul about how we should do more to help people who stand in line for years, do the work, and become citizens through patience and hard work? No, the left cares about immigrants who are a net drain, invade schools, cost healthcare dollars, remit money out of country, enclave themselves, and may well be criminals. Immigrants like that are not good for America, and they’re the ones the left is dying to let in.
That’s the difference. Conservatives want immigrants who are good for America. Liberals want immigrants who hurt America.
Another common reason that many liberals feel they need to go out of their way to favor illegals is an innate guilt from American success.
America is the single most prosperous nation to exist, not just currently but throughout all of history.
But while its citizens should be celebrating that and thanking their forefathers for putting in the work to ensure a successful future, liberals take it as a reason to feel guilty.
They push the idea that American success was stolen from others, that what Americans have is not earned but rather taken from the less fortunate.
As such, they then feel this need to simply give away what took centuries to build in the name of social justice.
Once again, it’s another flawed idea.
America was built by hard-working Americans who did what had never been done before.
Ultimately, illegals purely siphon away resources and success that Americans have worked for centuries to achieve.
They’re owed nothing, regardless of liberal guilt and faulty reasoning.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
