Kansas Republicans and cattle industry organizations have second-guessed and criticized the Trump administration following a recent flurry of arrests targeting illegal immigrants at cattle processing facilities in the state.
Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS), who is up for reelection in November, called out U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for not giving advance notice to local police about its checkpoints in and around southwestern Kansas last week.
“When ICE operates in Kansas, it needs to coordinate with our local law enforcement. Our sheriffs and police know these communities better than anyone, and working together keeps officers and residents safe,” Marshall wrote in a post to X. “I’m closely following what’s happening in SW Kansas and have been in direct contact with [Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin] and local law enforcement as ICE executes warrants in order to keep Kansans safe.”
Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) said ICE appeared to be looking for illegal immigrants who have been charged with crimes.
“I visited with Secretary Mullin, stressing the importance of DHS working with our local law enforcement to safely execute these warrants,” Moran, who is not up for reelection, wrote in a statement to X. “Secretary Mullin assured me these warrants are only for the purpose of arresting individuals who have been charged with criminal activities. I will remain engaged with federal and local authorities and community leaders.”
Fox News co-host Tomi Lahren chided Moran as being more in line with Democrats’ anti-ICE agenda than the Trump administration’s agenda.
“Who needs Democrats when we have Republicans like this?” Lahren responded to Moran’s X post.
Mullin has denied that ICE had made arrests at worksites in Kansas, although he has not indicated how many people were arrested across Kansas last week.
Last summer, ICE began to target illegal immigrant workers, prompting criticism from members of the Republican Congressional Hispanic Conference, who urged ICE to focus on illegal immigrants who have committed crimes.
Unaware of who ICE officers will target or where they will go next, workers have had to make decisions about whether to show up for a shift and risk not making it home.
Given the region’s large number of slaughterhouses and feedlots, the arrests outside workplaces last week have already affected the beef supply chain. The Department of Agriculture’s daily slaughter report showed 17,000 fewer head of cattle were processed on Sept. 24 than a week earlier.
Groups that represent workers in hospitality, restaurant, and agriculture industries have previously called for the Trump administration to prevent ICE from arresting workers without legal status, but they have gone on to predict economic downfall that would ensue nationwide if the country is purged of that workforce.
The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 2 union represents 2,500 members in Dodge City, Kansas. The union said in a statement that “ICE’s targeting of these communities sows fear, instability, and chaos into the lives of those trying to make a living and feed our nation.”
The Kansas Livestock Association, Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association, and Texas Cattle Feeders Association echoed those concerns.
“These ICE operations are having a massive chilling effect on the legal, documented, skilled workers that put beef on the table and keep the cattle supply chain moving,” the trio of livestock organizations said in a joint statement.
The Trump administration has touted its deportation push as a way to remove illegal immigrants from the U.S. workforce and increase wages by opening new jobs to Americans and legal immigrants. Illegal workers appeal to businesses because they are often willing to work under the table at a lower rate of pay than American workers.
In one example that backs up the White House’s claim, in the days after ICE arrested dozens of illegal workers at a Nebraska meatpacking plant last June, NBC News reported that every seat in the facility’s waiting room was occupied by legal workers who wanted to apply for jobs.
As many as 8.5 million illegal immigrants are in the U.S. workforce, according to the Center for Migration Studies of New York, a think tank and educational organization that studies international migration. The CMS compiled its latest analysis of employment trends, released in August, by pulling data from the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey.
The construction industry employs 20% of illegal immigrants; followed by accommodation and food services at 12%; manufacturing at 11%; administrative, support, and waste management services each at 10%; and retail trade at 8%.
A Pew Research Center survey published in October 2024 concluded that 3 in 4 registered voters believe illegal immigrants “mostly fill jobs that Americans don’t want.”
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The Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington-based organization that advocates limited immigration, has maintained that there is no job that Americans will not do.
“This is patently false because they are working in jobs in which U.S. workers are also employed — whether in construction, agricultural harvesting, or service professions,” the group said in a statement. “In fact, as one study demonstrates, ‘of the 474 civilian occupations, only six are majority immigrant (legal and illegal).’”