Tyson Foods is hiring a number of illegal immigrants who have recently arrived in New York.
Tyson, which is known for its chicken products and owns brands like Jimmy Dean and Hillshire Farm, has already hired dozens of migrants who obtained work permits and is looking to hire many more, Bloomberg reported.
The meatpacking company is working with Tent Partnership for Refugees, which was founded by Chobani yogurt founder Hamdi Ulukaya, to hire some of the recently arrived migrants in New York.
On one day in February, Tyson met with 17 migrants from Venezuela, Mexico, and Colombia at Chobani’s offices in Manhattan and hired them to work at Tyson’s Humboldt, Tennessee plant. Last week, Tyson reportedly hired 70 more migrants.
New York has seen an influx of more than 180,000 illegal migrants over the past two years creating a crisis that has strained the city’s budget and caused officials to plead for federal help.
Tyson already employs about 42,000 immigrants and refugees, although it is not clear how many are in the country illegally.
“We would like to employ another 42,000 if we could find them,” Garrett Dolan, a human resources leader at Tyson, told Bloomberg.
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“We’re recognizing there’s not a lot of people that are going to be working labor-manufacturing jobs that are American,” Dolan said, adding that many of the new hires “are going to come from refugees and immigrants, so we’re now in the business of strategically thinking that through.”
Tyson has a high turnover rate for frontline employees — those washing and packing chicken, for example — with four in 10 of those workers leaving the company each year. Because of this, the company is looking to hire about 52,000 employees just over this year. Those frontline jobs start at $16.50 an hour and include benefits.
Tyson is also providing migrant workers with other benefits including on-site childcare, transportation, and optional English classes. The new hires from New York also get temporary housing, a relocation stipend to move to Humboldt, and paid time off.
The company also set aside $1.5 million for legal aid services and is providing workers with paid time off to attend court hearings.
In 2023, Tyson paid for 1,317 workers to become U.S. citizens.
“They’re very, very loyal,” Dolan said. “They’ve been uprooted and what they want is stability — what they want is a sense of belonging.”
Tyson currently has a U.S. workforce of about 120,000 people.
Last year, Tyson was one of several food companies that faced a Labor Department probe over allegations of child migrant labor. Tyson has said it has zero tolerance for child labor and maintained it does not allow minors to work at any of its facilities.
Some critics took to social media to call for a boycott over Tyson’s decision to hire migrants.
“Tyson is selling out Americans and hiring illegal immigrants,” posted X user Paul Szypula. “This is blatantly America-Last.”
“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 X account End Wokeness.