The migrant workforce under Trump
Marketplace All-in-One
Marketplace
4.5 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 5 February 2025
⏱️ 27 minutes
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Summary
It’s hard to overstate the role immigrant workers play in the U.S. economy. Key industries rely on them — nearly half of meat-processing jobs, for instance, are held by immigrants. And many work in low-wage jobs that are vulnerable to exploitation.
Ted Genoways, a reporter with the Food and Environment Reporting Network, said Trump’s promises of mass deportations is creating fear and uncertainty for immigrant workers, both authorized and unauthorized, as well as for the massive food companies that employ them.
“If history is any guide, this will probably mean increased food prices, if only for companies trying to hedge against the possibility of something disastrous happening,” said Genoways.
On today’s show, Genoways gives us a snapshot of the low-wage immigrant workforce’s role in our economy and unpacks how Trump’s deportation plans could disrupt America’s food supply. Plus, why aren’t food companies held accountable for exploiting their employees?
And, we’ll get into what restrictions on the U.S. Agency for International Development could mean for Cuba. Plus, would you trust Kai with the aux?
Here’s everything we talked about today:
- “This Week’s Episode of Reveal: Immigrants on the Line” from Mother Jones
- Opinion | “How Trump’s Deportation Plans Could Blow Up the Food System and Increase Migrant Labor” from Politico
- “Brooke Rollins, Trump’s Agriculture Pick, Addresses Tariff and Immigration Impact on Farmers” from The New York Times
- “How Trump’s plan to deport undocumented immigrants threatens the workforce for U.S. farm workforce” from CBS News
- “Trump’s Pause of U.S. Foreign Assistance to Latin America: An ‘America Last’ Policy” from WOLA
- “US secretly created ‘Cuban Twitter’ to stir unrest and undermine government” from The Guardian
- “Chappell Roan wins best new artist at the 2025 Grammy Awards” from AP News
Got a question or comment for us? Leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, everyone. I'm Kimberly Adams. Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where none of us is as smart as all of us. |
| 0:12.7 | I'm Kyle Rizdahl, Tuesday, February the 4th is the day and date immigration is the topic, and it is, as we all know, a labor market story. And we're going to talk about what that's going to mean in light of what President Trump is doing or says he's going to do or has promised he's going to do or may not do. We frankly don't know with this White House. But that's what we're going to talk about today. |
| 0:35.2 | And look, we totally understand that there is a huge humanitarian component to this, and it has major effects on people's families, their lives, and we're likely going to be seeing some really challenging images and stories coming out of this crackdown. |
| 0:49.3 | But, you know, we do look at things with an economic lens, and we want to kind of focus on that today |
| 0:55.2 | because there are so many industries in this country propped up by immigrant workers, both |
| 1:01.1 | documented and undocumented. So here to make us smart on that is Ted Genoese, who's been |
| 1:06.8 | reporting on this for the Food and Environment Reporting Network, specifically on the |
| 1:12.0 | meatpacking industry. And he's here to help us get smart on how Trump's agenda could reshape |
| 1:17.5 | migrant labor in the United States. Welcome to the show, Ted. Thanks for having me on. |
| 1:23.3 | So let's start with some context. Give us a bit of a snapshot of the role, the migrant or undocumented workforce plays in the U.S. economy and particularly which industries are the most heavily reliant on these workers. |
| 1:38.8 | Yeah. |
| 1:39.3 | So obviously, you know, when Trump talks about there being 15, 20 million undocumented workers in the country, that just by its sheer numbers is going to represent a significant part of the economy. |
| 1:54.4 | And then when we start talking about the additional numbers of people who are here legally and enjoy different kinds of immigration |
| 2:02.7 | legal status. We're talking about a huge part of the American workforce. In particular, I'm |
| 2:10.6 | interested in, in a couple of areas that have been the focus of the campaign and of concerns that Americans have expressed |
| 2:19.4 | about the economy. |
| 2:20.4 | And of course, those are housing costs and housing availability and also then food prices. |
| 2:27.9 | And to me, it seems significant to recognize that the estimate is that somewhere around |
| 2:33.4 | 25% of the construction workforce in the |
| 2:37.2 | United States is made up of undocumented workers. And then the food services is even higher. It's |
| 2:43.4 | estimated that that probably half, maybe even more than half of the food industry is made up |
| 2:48.8 | of people who come from other countries. |
... |
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