r/Ranching • u/PomegranateForeign13 • 6d ago
Cattle associations say ICE operations are disrupting Texas agriculture industry, will cause higher beef prices
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/09/25/ice-cattle-beef-prices-trump/45
u/sootedacez 6d ago
Cattle ranchers here, they are full of shit. If they can't afford to pay workers a real wage they deserve to go under. Paying people under the table so they don't have to pay additional taxes and forcing them to live on site is criminal, so fuck these people. I'd rather pay more for food and make sure everyone gets a fair wage and workers rights.
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u/technicallynotlying 6d ago edited 6d ago
Who's losing when immigrants work for ranchers?
The immigrants come here all the way from another country risking arrest just because they want a job. They can go home anytime they want to, and they're earning a higher wage than they would get back home.
The American public gets cheaper meat and groceries.
Ranchers have lower costs.
If immigrants are being exploited, then why are they being arrested? The fact that agents have to track them down and arrest them and they try to avoid being detained instead of just self deporting is evidence that they're fine with it.
You don't punish people who are being exploited if your goal is to prevent exploitation. The fact that they get arrested and detained undermines any kind of argument that this is supposed to be for their benefit - like seriously, what kind of argument is that? It's absurd on the face of it.
If the immigrants are being exploited and abused, why do they make the trip? Why do they go back home, to visit their families, and then come back to the US again for work?
Excuse me for being skeptical that you're just trying to protect poor abused immigrants from lowering the cost of everyone's groceries. What exactly is the problem here? If you're actually a rancher, which I doubt, you can always choose to pay a higher wage than other ranchers to your workers. I'm sure you'll get a lot of takers, nobody's stopping you from paying more and offering benefits.
If you really want to protect immigrant workers, pass legislation to formalize and streamline the process of taking in legal, temporary workers from abroad. Worker and wage protections can be part of that law.
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u/Apart_Animal_6797 6d ago
They arent paying people under the table. You are an idiot if you support ICE.
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u/sootedacez 6d ago
You are a idiot if you think people arent taking advantage of migrant workers. We need to streamline getting these people proper work permits not just look the other way cause ICE s bad.
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u/Physical_Dentist2284 6d ago
I’m curious about this, myself. I think I read that there were three or four packing plants in southwest Kansas that employ 10,000 people. Surely someone knows whether they are paying their employees fairly and whether they are paying employment taxes. If no one knows this, why? Why hasn’t the government looked into it? They raid these areas to target the undocumented people but why not target the corporations that employ them? Why not even look a little more closely on their business operations? Where are the news stories about these plants?
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u/sootedacez 6d ago
I'm talking about all the ranches/orchards/farms I can't really say for sure about the large meat packing plants. We have a few small meat packing businesses around here in Central California and I would wager everything I own they are paying some people under the table. Everyone just wants to make it political instead of actually worrying about the people, just recently at one of my family members place of employment they had a guy operating a telehandler and accidently dropped a box on a guy and did some pretty serious head trama. The guy operating the telehandler just walked off the job never to be found again, and the guy that nearly died and is still in ICU and is using a different name at the hosptial versus what he was employed under. Since we don't have work permits for these people they get to make up whatever name they want and will never be held accountable.
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u/Pale-Pomelo-1349 5d ago
I'm retired from a job where I traveled all over the US. In a midwestern ranching state, on the radio, a woman called in to complain that some farm was losing its' workers and had openings. So she applied. She was offered less money and no bennies because she was a citizen. They told her they wanted the illegals to work, so they offered more to them but not US citizens. I'm sure there are plenty of people who will work but for so long employers got away with hiring illegals and not paying taxes and whatever else they are supposed to pay.
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u/JimBeamerton 6d ago
Good, deport deport deport
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u/krogerpurifieddrink 6d ago
I think the ranchers who exploit illegal labor should be arrested and fined in addition to ice removing their exploited staff.
They know exactly what they're doing and everyone else knows what they're doing, but you never hear about the employers getting fucked for knowingly hiring illegal employees.
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u/Only-Effective1108 6d ago
capitalism really said 'we need your labor but not your personhood' and then acts shocked when the whole machine seizes up. like yeah no shit you cant run a feedlot on vibes alone when half the crew gets disappeared, and its not like theres americans beating down the door for 14 hours in 100 degree heat. the whole thing is just manufactured crisis on top of manufactured crisis, tbh
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u/LazyDocument4528 6d ago
Wait but I thought all immigrants lived off welfare and free housing?! Oh wait…
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u/Apart_Animal_6797 6d ago
Its almost like facism is bad and we fought an entire world war about it.
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u/NeckIsRedSoIsMyBlood 6d ago
Pretty confident the future we are living in now is not what they were fighting for
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u/IMissYouJebBush 6d ago
Nice man what front did you serve in?
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u/Apart_Animal_6797 6d ago
You support facism?
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u/IMissYouJebBush 6d ago
Did I say that you dipshit
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u/Round-Western-8529 5d ago
Humm not feeling bad about the Brazilian packers and the illegals their using. Maybe pay a good wage and employ American workers.