When ICE raids removed hundreds of undocumented workers from Swift & Co. meatpacking plants, the company faced a crippling labor crisis. Its solution was to aggressively recruit a new, legally authorized, but equally vulnerable workforce: refugees fleeing war and persecution.

A former job developer reveals that meatpacking recruiters would explicitly request workers of specific nationalities, such as Burmese refugees. This was based on a belief that they were more docile and harder working than others, creating a discriminatory hiring pipeline that treats people as commodities.

Contrary to common political narratives, undocumented immigrants are often a net positive for government finances. They are heavily documented for tax purposes (e.g., Social Security) and pay into these systems but are less likely to draw benefits, effectively subsidizing programs for citizens and creating a highly profitable workforce.

The constant demand for labor at Greeley, Colorado's meatpacking plant has driven successive demographic transformations. The town shifted from primarily white, to white and Latino as the plant recruited from Mexico, and finally to a diverse international community as it began hiring refugees from Asia and Africa.

This popular DEI phrase is a "fair-weather" inclusion policy that ignores structural inequities. It asks marginalized workers to be vulnerable in environments that are often unsafe, shifting the burden of "authenticity" onto those most at risk of being harmed by it.

Employees who view their work as a calling are more willing to accept lower pay and make financial sacrifices. This passion makes them susceptible to exploitation, as organizations can implicitly substitute the promise of meaningful work for fair compensation and sustainable working conditions.

Pressured by a three-month deadline for refugee self-sufficiency, caseworkers forge relationships with companies like Tyson Foods that are always hiring. They effectively begin "selling a product" by delivering a steady stream of vulnerable workers, prioritizing placement speed over the individual's well-being or career path.

Most AI applications are designed to make white-collar work more productive or redundant (e.g., data collation). However, the most pressing labor shortages in advanced economies like the U.S. are in blue-collar fields like welding and electrical work, where current AI has little impact and is not being focused.

Restricting immigration halts a key source of labor for essential sectors like agriculture and construction. This drives up consumer costs and could cut GDP by 4-7%, creating a direct path to higher inflation and slower economic growth.