Tyson Foods has recently faced powerful backlash for voicing its intent to hire migrant workers just after the announcement of a plant closure in Iowa that would cut jobs held by American citizens. The food giant has indicated that it is looking to hire tens of thousands of illegal immigrants to fulfill food processing roles.
According to recent reports, Tyson is seeking to hire approximately 42,000 illegal aliens and other migrants who have recently arrived in the United States. Representatives from the company have noted their intentions to hire the migrants, praising how “loyal” they are.
“They’re very, very loyal,” Garrett Dolan, a human resources leader within the company, explained. “They’ve been uprooted and what they want is stability — what they want is a sense of belonging.” Dolan continued noting the company’s goal to employ even more migrants as American jobs are cut. “We would like to employ another 42,000 if we could find them,” he said.
However, after Dolan’s comments sparked massive controversy online, Tyson Foods attempted to “set the record straight,” seemingly walking back from the remarks of the human resources employee. The company claimed there is “misinformation” spreading about the company’s hiring practices and how they relate to illegal immigration. Tyson also claimed it is committed to fighting “unlawful employment.”
“In recent days, there has been a lot of misinformation in the media about our company, and we feel compelled to set the record straight,” the food giant stated in a press release. “Tyson Foods is strongly opposed to illegal immigration, and we led the way in participating in the two major government programs to help employers combat unlawful employment, E-Verify and the Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers (IMAGE) program.”
The public statement emphasized that of the 120,000 U.S. employees, all of them are authorized to work in the country. “Tyson Foods employs 120,000 team members in the U.S., all of whom are required to be legally authorized to work in this country,” the statement continued. “We have a history of strong hiring practices, and anybody who is legally able is welcome to apply to open job listings.”
“After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to permanently close our Perry, Iowa, pork plant,” a Tyson Foods spokesperson recently said. The spokesperson stated that the plant’s closure “emphasizes our focus to optimize the efficiency of our operations to best serve our customers.”
Since the allegations have arisen against Tyson, Republican politicians have criticized the company while exploring avenues to hold businesses accountable if they prioritize hiring illegal immigrants over American citizens.
Watch FNC’s Jesse Watters discuss the problem here:
The American Tribune reported on comments from Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, who sounded off on companies that fire American citizens only to hire migrants. The senator suggested that companies that engage in such hiring practices should be subjected to congressional scrutiny. “We’re certainly going to look into whether we can change that [ability], assuming Tyson is operating legally,” he told Fox News’ Jesse Watters.
“All we know is that they are firing American workers and hiring illegal aliens to replace them. This is the entire point of illegal immigration — and Republicans, we’ve got to hammer this point home,” the Ohio senator added.
Featured image credit: Fkbowen, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tyson_Trailer.jpg
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