Tyson says plant closings unrelated to hiring immigrant workers | Fact check
The claim: Tyson Foods closed its Perry, Iowa, plant to hire ‘illegals’ to work in New York
A March 14 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) features a graphic reading “No more Tyson Chicken for me!”
“Closing Perry Iowa facility, moving operations to NY hiring only illegals to run facility,” the post reads.
Other social media users made similar claims that Tyson was hiring immigrants not legally in the U.S. to replace workers laid off in plant closings.
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Our rating: False
Tyson Foods says its efforts to hire immigrants are unrelated to plant closings, including the one in Perry. The company also says it only hires immigrants who have legal authorization to work, and it has no plans to move any operations to New York.
Plant closings, immigration hiring are unrelated
On March 11, Tyson announced it would close its Perry, Iowa, pork processing plant, eliminating more than 1,200 jobs in a town of about 8,000 people. The social media claim connects that closing to media coverage of the company’s interest in hiring immigrant workers, including refugees and other non-citizens.
However, a Tyson spokesperson told USA TODAY in an email that there is no link between the two.
“We can say definitively that the closure of our Perry, Iowa, plant was in no way connected to our hiring initiatives at other locations,” the spokesperson wrote. “Any insinuation that we would cut American jobs to hire immigrants is entirely false. Tyson Foods did not fire workers from our Perry, Iowa, plant to replace them with refugees. We closed our Perry, Iowa plant for specific business reasons.”
The social media post also claims the Perry plant closure is connected to an effort to set up new operations in New York that would be staffed and run by immigrants. But the spokesperson said the company does “not have, nor plan to have, operations in New York.”
The post's errant claim may stem from a hiring event in New York that was highlighted in an article by Bloomberg. The story quoted Tyson saying it has about 42,000 immigrants in its 120,000-person workforce in the U.S. The company joined the Tent Partnership for Refugees, which helps connect eligible workers with jobs and provides a manual to help employers navigate the process of hiring immigrants with legal statuses that allow them to work.
The Tyson spokesperson said the company thoroughly checks the eligibility of all workers. It participates in the Department of Homeland Security’s IMAGE program, which provides training and guidance for hiring immigrants, and E-Verify, a system for comparing information on Form I-9s for employment eligibility verification to government records. The company also physically checks work authorization cards and social security cards on-site for all employees.
Knowingly hiring workers without legal work authorization carries penalties that include a fine of up to $3,000 per worker and up to six months in prison, according to a Department of Justice criminal resource manual.
Tyson has not offered more specific reasons for a series of plant closings it has made or foreshadowed since the start of 2023, but the spokesperson said the company has enough openings for affected workers to remain with the company in other locations.
“Any of our jobs in the U.S. are open to anybody who is qualified and legally able to work in this country,” the Tyson spokesperson said.
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The user who shared the post did not provide any direct evidence supporting the claim when reached by USA TODAY.
Our fact-check sources:
Tyson Foods spokesperson, March 19, Email exchange with USA TODAY
USA TODAY, March 12, Tyson Foods closing Iowa pork plant as company moves forward with series of 2024 closures
Bloomberg, March 11, Tyson Is Hiring New York Immigrants for Jobs No One Else Wants
Tent Partnership for Refugees, Jan. 2024, U.S. Employers’ Guide to Hiring Refugees
Department of Justice, accessed March 20, Criminal Resource Manual 1908
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, updated July 10, 2020, Penalties
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tyson Foods verifies employee authorization to work | Fact check