Immigration Crackdown in Southwest Kansas Disrupts Beef Processing

US immigration agents conducted a sweep across southwest Kansas this week, an area with a dense concentration of feedlots and slaughterhouses, causing immediate disruptions to the beef industry, according to community organizers and local officials.

The enforcement activity kept many workers, largely immigrants, from reporting to jobs, forcing beef processing plants to reduce operations and leaving cattle backed up in the supply chain. Community volunteers and livestock producer groups described a chaotic scene.

"It's been chaotic," said Kathleen Alonso, a community volunteer from Liberal, Kansas. "Obviously they were stopping Brown people. They were not stopping any other races."

Local residents estimated that dozens of people were detained, though an exact figure was not immediately available. The Department of Homeland Security, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.

Officers stopped motorists around Dodge City, Liberal and Garden City to ask about citizenship status, according to organizers and local government officials. The communities are predominantly Latino. Agents also patrolled and parked near meat plants and a large dairy.

The activity disrupted workforces at processors, feedlots and dairies and delayed shipments of thousands of cattle, the Kansas Livestock Association, Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association and Texas Cattle Feeders Association said in a joint statement.

"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 groups said. "These types of disruptions will lead to higher beef prices for consumers."

US beef prices had already soared to records this year after a multi-year drought pushed ranchers to shrink herds to a 75-year low and Washington suspended cattle imports from Mexico. President Donald Trump has pursued various policies to lower prices, including increasing low-tariff beef imports and launching an investigation into meatpackers.

Meatpackers slaughtered an estimated 90,000 cattle on Thursday, down 16% from a week earlier, the US Department of Agriculture said. Kansas ranks second nationwide for commercial cattle processing behind Nebraska.

"A large percentage of milk and beef come from this region thanks to a lot of immigrants who work very hard to do jobs not many people do," Alonso said. "We are the heart of this country, and it is being terrorized, and we need it to stop."

Two of the country's four large beef processors, National Beef Packing Company and Cargill, have plants in Dodge City. National Beef also operates a plant in Liberal.

Immigration agents focused their activity around the plants on Wednesday, said Alejandro Rangel-Lopez, senior Latino and rural program manager for Kansas voting rights group Loud Light.

"They tried really, really hard to get into National Beef in both Liberal and Dodge City," said Rangel-Lopez, who lives in Dodge City. "They were in the parking lot and trying to pick up people."

National Beef said it was committed to supporting employees and following the law. "We are providing legally appropriate cooperation and attempting to work through this process with the Department of Homeland Security in an orderly way," spokesperson Toby Cook said. He declined to answer specific questions about ICE activity. Cargill did not respond to a request for comment.

Few employees showed up to the National Beef plant in Liberal on Thursday because ICE agents were targeting all people of color, said Janeth Vazquez, the city's vice mayor. She added that ICE agents circled an elementary school with students who have undocumented parents, and many children did not attend class.

"Our community is a ghost town," Vazquez said. "Businesses are not open because people are scared to leave their homes."