The number of undocumented immigrants working in the U.S. meatpacking industry is some 23 percent, according to one accounting.
But not a single one of them of those immigrants works for Fieldale Farms, Northeast Georgia’s largest employer, according to the company.
“We’re daily trying to hire and employ workers that are considered legal by any standard our government sets,” said John Wright, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Fieldale, in an interview last week. “We believe that 100 percent of our employees are legal.”
Human Rights Watch, the international group, wrote in 2005: “Estimates put the number of undocumented workers in the United States at more than eleven million. Nearly 60 percent of them are migrant workers from Mexico. Many have been in the country for years working long hours for low pay in demanding, dirty and dangerous jobs. They pay taxes, including Social Security taxes from which they will never benefit. They are setting down roots and having children who are U.S. citizens. However, because of their vulnerable immigration status, they live in shadow and fear, unable and afraid to seek protection of their human rights and their rights as workers.”
Fieldale’s Wright said that, despite widely publicized raids on workplaces where undocumented workers work or gather, he was unaware of any such raid on any Fieldale facility.
Hyundai Raid in Savannah: Not here
One of the largest ICE raids occurred near Savannah, earlier this year at a Hyundai battery
plant. Some 475 workers were detained, and many of them deported to their native South Korea. Some have since returned to work in Georgia.
Wright said Fieldale works to prevent any such situation.
“We train our HR (human resources) folks to do the best they can with applicants to find if they are of legal status when we onboard someone,” Wright said.
He said that there had been several changes in immigration law over the last few years and especially in the 11 months since President Trump took office—some at the behest of federal agencies, some due to court decisions. Fieldale has rigorously attempted to adjust to each change to keep its employees in place and legal.
There were, for example, stipulations under the Biden Administration to admit immigrants from four troubled countries in the Caribbean and Central and South America—Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.
“This…program gave a window of opportunity for people to come in and begin working legally in the United States, as long as they had filed for asylum,” Wright said. “Now, they are told they missed the opportunity and the window is closed,” he said, adding that Fieldale’s HR officers seek alternate legal ways to remain even for those deemed illegal.
“We’re blessed with a phenomenal Hispanic population here in North Georgia,” Wright continued. “They’re legal, they’re great workers, they’re God-fearing people, and they’re community-minded,” he said. “They are just the same as…third-generation Habersham County people…we don’t care where you were born.”
No Response From ICE, Church, Non-Profits
Now Habersham attempted to reach the offices of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, the enforcement arm of the federal Department of Homeland Security, to inquire about immigration enforcement in the poultry industry and Fieldale Farms specifically. Several email messages and phone calls to the Washington, D.C. and Atlanta offices of ICE went unreturned.
The Rev. Jose Raul deLeon, a priest at St. Mark’s Catholic Church in Clarkesville, which serves a large, Spanish-speaking immigrant population, failed to respond to several messages left with a receptionist at the church and by email. St. Mark’s’ website says it is the only Roman Catholic church in Habersham County.
Hispanic Alliance Georgia, a non-profit based in Gainesville, also did not respond. Its mission statement reads in part: “we strive to empower the Hispanic and Latino community through education, advocacy, and comprehensive support services.”
Fieldale’s main office is in Baldwin. It has additional facilities in Lavonia, Eastanollee, Cornelia, Murrayville, and Gainesville and a total of some 5,200 employees, Wright said.
“The rules are the rules; we have to abide by them,” Wright said., “It doesn’t mean we agree with them, but we are under the umbrella of the current administration.”
Pay Way Above the Minimum
Wright said that its strict standards are beneficial not only to the company, but to its employees as well. “We pay almost three times the minimum wage,” he said. “We provide two healthcare clinics for our workers in Cornelia and Gainesville. We have two pharmacies, with concierge services, so workers can get medications delivered to their workplace.”
“We serve three meals a day” to employees, he added. “We pay more than just lip services to these people—our most important asset IS our people.”
“It’s just unfortunate that the immigration landscape has been so shaky this year.”
