Tyson Foods Faces Boycott After Report Claims Company Hires Migrants

Tyson Foods is facing boycott calls following a report that the company planned to hire migrants to work at its factories.

Conservatives reacted with outrage to a now-retracted Scripps News article claiming that the company was hiring some of the asylum seekers who arrived in New York City. However, a spokesperson for Tyson Foods told Newsweek the figures presented in that retracted article were inaccurate.

Tyson Foods responded to boycott calls in a statement.

"In recent days, there has been a lot of misinformation in the media about our company, and we feel compelled to set the record straight. Tyson Foods is strongly opposed to illegal immigration, and we led the way in participating in the two major government programs to help employers combat unlawful employment, E-Verify and the Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers (IMAGE) program," the statement reads.

It continues: "Since being founded in 1935 in Arkansas, Tyson Foods has created jobs and employed millions of people in states all across America. Today, Tyson Foods employs 120,000 team members in the U.S., all of whom are required to be legally authorized to work in this country. We have a history of strong hiring practices, and anybody who is legally able is welcome to apply to open job listings."

Tyson Foods does have a partnership with Tent Partnership for Refugees and in 2022 committed to hiring 2,500 refugees, according to the organization's website. However, this figure is much lower than the number initially reported by Scripps that sparked boycott calls.

Outrage was also fueled by Tyson announcing on Monday that it would close a plant in Perry, Iowa, that had about 1,200 employees amid a drop in demand for some products, according to Reuters. Tyson has shut down six plants in the past year.

However, a spokesperson for Tyson told Newsweek that the closure of Perry plant was completely unrelated to the Tent program.

The Biden administration has faced calls to tighten border security to lower the number of border crossings as local governments across the U.S. have struggled to grapple with the increase in migrant populations.

The two announcements sparked outrage from some conservatives. Critics took aim at Tyson Foods over their announcement to hire new migrants in posts to X, formerly Twitter.

"We need to bankrupt illegal immigrant magnet Tyson Foods! If your blood isn't boiling after watching this clip from Jesse Watters, you don't have a pulse," wrote Vince Langman, a self-described "ex-con deplorable" with nearly 150,000 followers on the platform.

"Tyson is closing its facility in Perry, Iowa and laying off its 1,200 workers. Instead, they plan to hire thousands of new illegals in states like New York. #BoycottTyson. Pass it on," posted the popular X user @EndWokeness.

"THEY'RE FIRING AMERICANS AND OFFERING PERKS TO ILLEGALS," wrote @MJTruthUltra.

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican, voiced disappointment about the decision to shut down the plant in Perry, describing it as a "great big punch to the gut" in remarks to the Des Moines Register. The plant is expected to close on July 28.

According to Reuters, Tyson's pork segment had an adjusted operating loss of $128 million for the 2023 fiscal year.

Immigration remains a key political issue ahead of the November presidential election, as the United States has seen an uptick in asylum seekers crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

More than 2.4 million encounters at the border occurred in the 2023 fiscal year, up from roughly 1.7 million in 2021, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

Correction 3/16/24 10:07 a.m. ET: This article was corrected to reflect that the numbers initially cited from Scripps News were inaccurate. The headline for this article has also been changed.