Here is a recent article from USA Today confirming something we know well—Americans (and refugees) are lining up for jobs as illegal immigrants are busted.
When federal agents descended on six meatpacking plants owned by Swift & Co. in December 2006, they rounded up nearly 1,300 suspected illegal immigrants that made up about 10% of the labor force at the plants.
But the raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents did not cripple the company or the plants. In fact, they were back up and running at full staff within months by replacing those removed with a significant number of native-born Americans, according to a report by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS).*
That was the most extreme example of what has become an increasingly common result of the raids: “They were very beneficial to American workers,” according to Vanderbilt University professor Carol Swain.
“Whenever there’s an immigration raid, you find white, black and legal immigrant labor lining up to do those jobs that Americans will supposedly not do,” said Swain, who teaches law and political science.
We have reported many times on these pages that refugee resettlement agencies are setting up offices and providing labor to meatpacking companies throughout the US.
Exactly who is filling the jobs has varied, depending on the populations surrounding the plants:
Throughout the Great Plains, a new wave of legal immigrants is filling the void, according to Jill Cashen, spokeswoman for the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which represents 1.3 million people who work in the food-processing industry. Plants are refilling positions with newly arrived immigrants from places such as Sudan, Somalia and Southeast Asia.
*USA Today refers to a Center for Immigration Studies report but although it links other things in the article, never links the study. I assume it is this one from August.
By the way, one of the earliest and clearest examples of rushing in to fill the gap left by raids on illegal aliens employed in meatpacking is this one where the Clinton Administration brought in Bosnian refugees to work in Iowa meatpacking plants.