Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Sep 9
Pillen Family Farms Employed Undocumented Workers for 10+ Years as Nebraska Governor Backed ICE Crackdown
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Sep 9

Pillen Family Farms Employed Undocumented Workers for 10+ Years as Nebraska Governor Backed ICE Crackdown

1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Sep 9

Summary

  • Pillen Family Farms, owned by Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, employed undocumented workers for more than a decade, according to court records and interviews reviewed by The New York Times and Flatwater Free Press.
  • The company’s labor force spans about 1,200 employees across four states and Canada, and the use of undocumented workers was described as an open secret at some Nebraska farms amid chronic agricultural labor shortages.
  • That record clashes with Pillen’s recent turn toward hard-line immigration politics as he seeks re-election this fall with Donald Trump’s endorsement.
  • Days after Trump returned to the White House, Pillen directed the Nebraska State Patrol to work with ICE and let the agency use a former state prison to hold hundreds of detainees in the administration’s deportation sweep.

Insights

How will the agricultural industry survive if strict border crackdowns eliminate the very workforce that keeps America's mega-farms running?
If legal visa programs fail year-round livestock operations, is the entire modern meat industry secretly dependent on an underground economy?