Who's gonna do the work?
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But Noem’s heated rhetoric belies a stark reality: With unemployment at 1.9% — the lowest in the country — her state faces an acute labor shortage and has grown increasingly dependent on the same migrants she may be tasked with deporting.
It’s those migrants, many in the U.S. illegally, who provide the low-paid labor powering the booming slaughterhouses, dairy farms and construction sites in South Dakota. And any immigration actions spearheaded by Noem, who is expected to be confirmed by the Senate in coming days, could have crippling consequences for businesses in her own backyard.
A co-op of ethnic German Hutterite farmers, who arrived in the 19th century, own the Dakota Provisions plant. But migrants from Venezuela, Thailand and other countries, earning around $14 per hour, perform the dangerous, back-breaking work.
Huron, population 14,000, flourished with the arrival of the railroad in the 1880s, attracting migrants from all over Europe. But when the rail depot fell into disuse in the 1960s, the city began a long decline: a college closed, businesses shuttered and families uprooted.
Migrants are now fueling something of a rural renaissance.
The first contingent arrived some 20 years ago from Mexico and Central America. The latest are refugees fleeing ethnic violence in Myanmar. At the Beadle County courthouse, translation services are now offered in seven languages: Arabic, French, Karen, Nepali, Russian, Spanish and Swahili. A beef processing plant that is about to break ground is expected to attract even more foreign workers.
All the while, the town’s high school soccer team has become competitive. A half-dozen Latin bodegas sell exotic foods. And once-abandoned parks are brimming with families.
“It’s not an invasion — it’s an invitation,” said Todd Manolis, owner of Manolis Grocery on Main Street. “There were lots of growing pains at first. But without a doubt they saved us.”
On a recent afternoon, as Manolis waited on customers who chewed the fat and bought goods on store credit, the owner pointed to the store’s license hanging from a wall. It showed the business had been started a century ago — by Manolis’ grandfather, shortly after his arrival as an immigrant from Greece.
As a bonus, the South Dakota refugees apparently don't eat pets...
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These people are idiots.
Hahahahaha!
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What do you do when the country they're being deported to won't let the planes land?
Colombia on Sunday turned away two U.S. military aircraft with migrants being deported as part of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, a U.S. official said, in at least the second case of a Latin American nation refusing U.S. military deportation flights.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro condemned the practice, suggesting it treated migrants like criminals. In a post on social media platform X, Petro said Colombia would welcome home deported migrants on civilian planes, saying they should be treated with dignity and respect.
Colombia's decision follows one by Mexico, which also refused a request last week to let a U.S. military aircraft land with migrants.
"The U.S. cannot treat Colombian migrants as criminals," Petro wrote, noting that there were 15,660 Americans without proper immigration status in Colombia.
When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier
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@wtg said in Who's gonna do the work?:
What do you do when the country they're being deported to won't let the planes land?
Better stock up on coffee if you drink Colombian.
Following Petro’s announcement, Trump criticized him on social media while announcing a slate of new sanctions and policies targeting Colombia, including a 25% tariff on all imports from the country, a “travel ban” for Colombian citizens, and a revocation of visas for Colombian officials in the US along with “all allies and supporters.”
Trump also ordered stricter inspections of cargo shipments arriving from Colombia, along with banking and finance sanctions and visa sanctions on “all Party Members, Family Members, and Supporters of the Colombian Government.”
“These measures are just the beginning. We will not allow the Colombian Government to violate its legal obligations with regard to the acceptance and return of the Criminals they forced into the United States!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/26/politics/colombia-tariffs-trump-deportation-flights/index.html
Why does everything have to be turned into a fight and chaos?
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Apparently this is all in accordance with current law:
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Send them to El Salvador.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-eyes-asylum-agreement-el-salvador-deportation-migrants/
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Except Red states will demand expulsion of their workers too. It’s what they voted for.
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@Steve-Miller posted this a few days ago. Raids in California. True, it's a blue state. It also grows a ton of our food.
https://wtf.coffee-room.com/topic/1147/no-oranges-for-you?_=1737819414658
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Maybe not so much any more.
https://www.the-express.com/news/us-news/161317/farm-workers-ice-raids-food-prices
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Pennsylvania, too. Even legal workers may leave ag jobs, out of fear, especially if their family is made of of mixed immigration status people.
Iowa.
"Ag will be significantly impacted, because we rely on immigrant labor," said Chad Hart, an Iowa State University agricultural economist. “We learned during COVID-19 that even slowing production down can have dramatic impacts that are felt by consumers across the nation.”
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I predict that u-pick farms will be very popular this summer.
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I would expect the same thing, but my today social media feeds lit up with stories and photos of ICE raids on Mexican restaurants and various businesses in Cleveland, of all places. I’ve done the fact checking I’ve been able to do and the reports appear to be legit, although the papers remain silent.
Pity. I like those restaurants.
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California wonk here.
They’re targeting the Central Valley, where the vast majority of crops are exported, and appear to be ignoring the Imperial Valley where most of the produce is grown for the US market.
Seems odd.
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Dangerous criminals being rounded up.
In the Atlanta suburb of Lilburn, ICE agents arrested Walter Valladares, a 53-year-old undocumented immigrant from Honduras, according to family members who spoke with CNN.
Aside from a ticket for driving without a license, for which he paid a fine, Walter Valladares had no criminal record, his brother Edwin Valladares told CNN. He worked in construction and lived in Lilburn alongside his wife and four children, Edwin Valladares said.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/26/politics/chicago-immigration-trump-ice/index.html
