Donald Trump\u2019s crackdown on immigration is piling pressure on US factories, according to employees and union leaders, as veteran workers from overseas are forced to leave their jobs.<\/p>\n
As economists warn the administration\u2019s full-scale deportation ambitions could ultimately cost millions of jobs, workers at two sites \u2013 in Michigan and Kentucky \u2013 told the Guardian that industrial giants are grappling with labor shortages.<\/p>\n
The US president has moved to strip<\/a> more than a million immigrants of their legal status in the US, including by shutting down the Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans (CHNV) Parole Program, which allowed hundreds of thousands to work legally in the country. It has meanwhile ramped up immigration arrest operations with prospective daily quotas of 3,000 arrests per day.<\/p>\n Such moves have piled pressure on industries across the US economy<\/a> \u2013 including the food, hospitality, construction, transportation and care sectors \u2013 which rely on large numbers of migrants to do essential work.<\/p>\n At a GE Appliances plant in Louisville, Kentucky, more than 125 workers were abruptly forced out of their jobs in the spring due to programs cancelled as part of Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown, according to an employee. GE Appliances makes home appliances including refrigerators, microwaves and dishwashers.<\/p>\n \u201cIn three different buildings, on a couple of different shifts, stewards reported that they lost production so they weren\u2019t able to make all the products they were supposed to make,\u201d said Jess Reese, a replacement operator at the plant and organizer for IUE-CWA Local 83761. \u201cIt was hard to cover certain job tasks on the assembly line, and so that created chaos, and it was just hard to get things done.\u201d<\/p>\n Reese expressed concern about the threat of more workers being forced out. Trump\u2019s efforts to revoke<\/a> protected status for Haiti could impact an additional 200 union members next February, she said. \u201cHundreds of workers kind of disappearing at the drop of a hat is no joke, as we\u2019ve seen with the last wave of mass terminations.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesperson for GE Appliances said: \u201cWe added additional staffing where needed and continue to follow the law.\u201d<\/p>\n At a Kraft-Heinz plant in Holland, Michigan, meanwhile, workers are said to have been mandated to work overtime. The firm is one of the largest food and beverage companies in the world, behind brands including Philadelphia cream cheese and Jell-O deserts.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had people there for 20 years, and all of a sudden they get notification their immigration authorization is revoked,\u201d Tomas Torres, a maintenance mechanic of 13 years, and president of RWDSU Local 705. \u201cAnd they can\u2019t be there anymore, and that just puts a strain on everybody,.<\/p>\n \u201cThe lack of people on the lines. There are employees running two machines; it should be one person per machine. Manager and supervisors are all stressed out,<\/strong> and cancelling vacations for people because they don\u2019t have enough to run the machines.\u201d<\/p>\n Torres has been working 12- to 14-hour days, he said: part of a first shift, all of a second shift, and part of a third shift.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m tired. And you catch people falling asleep on the line, and it\u2019s a big safety issue,\u201d he added. \u201cAll of this that has happened has affected everybody at the plant. It\u2019s crazy, because I hear people complain every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n Kraft Heinz refuted the plant is experiencing labor shortages due to immigration policy changes, but did not say how many workers were lost at the plant due to the changes.<\/p>\n \u201cKraft Heinz has strict work authorization verification processes that comply with all applicable laws and regulations,\u201d said the firm in a statement. \u201cOvertime is driven by the needs of the business, and we are currently in one of our busiest seasons of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n