After ICE removes illegal workers, job applicants flood in

A raid on a meatpacking plant in Nebraska has caused a surge in job applications following the apprehension of 76 employees who were detained and removed from the premises by federal authorities.

After just a few days, a dozen illegal workers had already been removed from the state or deported, while more than 60 were taken to a detention center, NBC News reported.

What happened after the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid, though, defied a sentiment that has permeated across the country: that no American wants the jobs that illegal workers perform.

‘Large-scale employment of aliens without legal work authorization.’

As Glenn Valley Foods mourned the loss of what the company called “family” members (referring to illegal employees), prospective employees banged on the doors looking to fill the roles that the company itself said were very hard to hire for.

“It takes skilled people that take pride in what they do,” company president Chad Hartmann told NBC News.

Still, the company’s entire waiting room was packed with people filling out job applications just two days after the ICE raid. Dozens of possible new employees, many of them Spanish-speaking, were coming in and out of the plant, according to the report.

However, there is still a specter hanging around the Omaha plant about the return of ICE agents.

RELATED: ‘They were part of our family’: Illegal worker accused of pulling box cutters on ICE agents during raid on meatpacking plant

Kevin Richardson/The Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Following the raid, which is considered to be largest worksite operation in Nebraska this year, even more Glenn Valley Foods employees declined to show up at work, due to feeling “afraid or traumatized.”

Their absence caused a 20% drop in work production that day, the president explained.

Other nearby business operators complained, even in Spanish, to NBC News that many of those who were detained by ICE were their customers. A group of hairstylists said their weekend business suffered because “immigrant customers” were not coming in out of fear of more ICE raids.

The sheer amount of illegal immigration and illegal employment in Nebraska seems to have spiraled out of control. ICE is now conducting thorough investigations in the state and is cracking down on what the agency called the “large-scale employment of aliens without legal work authorization.”

RELATED: Border Patrol arrest at Home Depot punches hole in Democrats’ narrative

Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Ongoing raids have seemingly not had a large effect on the labor market, however.

In April, job openings rose, with the Labor Department reporting 7.4 million job vacancies, up from 7.2 million in March, according to the Associated Press.

By early June, hiring remained steady, the New York Times noted, as 139,000 people were hired and the unemployed rate remained unchanged.

Inflation, trade wars, and tariffs have all been expected to be black eyes for the Trump administration in terms of the job market, but as numbers have remained steady, perhaps Americans do want, and always have wanted, all sorts of jobs — including at meatpacking plants.

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