As Tyson Foods announced it is shuttering an Iowa pork factory that will lead to more than 1,000 lost jobs, the company reportedly met with and hired migrants in Manhattan for positions at a Tennessee plant.
After announcing it will join with the Tent Partnership for Refugees, staff from the poultry heavyweight engaged with asylum seekers at the New York office of Chobani yogurt, whose CEO Hamdi Ulukaya founded the charity.
At least 87 migrants from Central and South America were hired in two separate groups, according to Tribune News Service. The same report said Tyson employs about 42,000 immigrants and that the company's corporate social responsibility executive said, "We would like to employ another 42,000 if we could find them."
In response to the news, Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, said companies who lay off Americans while seeking foreign nationals for open positions should face congressional scrutiny.
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"We're certainly going to look into whether we can change that [ability], assuming Tyson is operating legally," Vance told "Jesse Watters Primetime" on Thursday.
"All we know is that they are firing American workers and hiring illegal aliens to replace them. This is the entire point of illegal immigration — and Republicans, we've got to hammer this point home."
Vance argued the hiring of migrants or foreign nationals who are willing to work for lower pay than U.S. citizens both exacerbates the labor pool and suppresses wages for working-class families.
Host Jesse Watters noted how top Democrats have publicly spoken about the need for foreign nationals to take American jobs, pointing to House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., lamenting in January that "vegetables would rot in the ground if they weren't being picked by many immigrants — many illegal immigrants."
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Watters also cited Rep. Nancy Pelosi's September 2022 comments asking why Florida would fly migrants out-of-state if farmers are purportedly clamoring for laborers.
In response to a "Jesse Watters Primetime" request for comment, a Tyson spokesperson said: "Tyson Foods is proud to employ a diverse workforce, including immigrants, all of whom are legally authorized to work in the United States… "
However, Vance suggested U.S. companies acting like Tyson Foods are not practicing true capitalism.
"That is not capitalism or a market economy. That is the decimation of the American middle class via illegal immigration, and it's happening all over the country," he said.
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Vance also faulted the Biden administration for, as he characterized it, making it easier to "pretend that economic migrants are asylum seekers."
"This is the end of the American dream if we let this stuff happen. We've got to re-elect Donald Trump, and we've got to get congressional Republicans with some spine to push back against this stuff."
In a statement to FOX Business on the shuttering of the Iowa factory, a Tyson spokesperson said the closure "emphasizes our focus to optimize the efficiency of our operations to best serve our customers."
Perry, Iowa, Mayor Dirk Cavanaugh told Reuters the Tyson plant was the largest employer in the area and that it would be "tough to figure out what to do without them."
The migrants hired in New York will reportedly go to work at the Tyson plant in Humboldt, Tenn.
Tyson provided a separate statement to Fox News Digital, saying there has been "a lot of misinformation in the media about our company" in recent days and "we feel compelled to set the record straight."
"Any insinuation that we would cut American jobs to hire immigrant workers is completely false," the statement said.
"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."
"Since being founded in 1935 in Arkansas, Tyson Foods has created jobs and employed millions of people in states all across America, the majority of whom are American citizens. Today, Tyson Foods employs 120,000 team members in the United States, 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," it concluded.
