Tyson Foods speaks out on hiring migrant workers over Americans (2024)

Tyson Foods, the United States' largest poultry producer, has responded to a series of complaints an organization has made about its employment practices.

The complaints were filed by America First Legal, a nonprofit organization of attorneys and strategists run by Stephen Miller, Donald Trump's former senior adviser. The group also includes Matthew Whitaker, a former U.S. acting attorney general.

In March, the Arkansas-headquartered company faced similar accusations after a quickly retracted Scripps News article claimed it was hiring asylum-seekers who arrived in New York.

Wednesday, AFL announced that it had filed complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Department of Justice and the Iowa Civil Rights Commission regarding alleged citizenship discrimination, racial discrimination and the breaking of child labor laws.

"Any insinuation that we would discriminate against Americans to hire immigrant workers is completely false," a Tyson Foods spokesperson told Newsweek via email Thursday. "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."

The company added that it was "strongly opposed" to illegal immigration and only hired facility workers aged 18 and above.

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Amid boycott calls in March, Tyson Foods released a statement disputing the allegations about its labor practices.

"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," the company 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."

Gene Hamilton, AFL's general counsel and executive director, told Newsweek via email that "the American people can decide for themselves" if the complaints are warranted.

"The available evidence appears to show a strong bias against American citizens and towards easily manipulable labor," Hamilton said. "Note: the Biden Administration has flooded the United States with millions of illegal aliens, but because of the manner in which they have illegally processed them, a significant number of those now have work permits—satisfying the needs of employers who need a docile labor force that is less likely to complain about working conditions."

The complaints the AFL filed include the following:

• Alleged violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
• Alleged discrimination against American citizens.
• Alleged violation of laws that prohibit the use of child labor in slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants.

The organization also sent a cease-and-desist letter to Tyson Foods CEO Donnie King and the company's board of directors, demanding compliance with federal employment, immigration and securities laws.

"Perhaps Tyson's leaders consider themselves global citizens who live and work in the United States by happenstance. That is their right. But transnational pretensions are not a license to discriminate against whites, men, or American citizens; neither does economic power justify policies and practices that undermine or circumvent our immigration and child labor laws. Our citizens and consumers deserve companies that put America and her people first; AFL will not stop fighting for this cause," AFL Senior Vice President Reed D. Rubinstein said in a statement on Wednesday.

AFL said there was "ample reason" to believe Tyson was hiring migrants working in the U.S. without legal permission. It cited a March Bloomberg report in which a company spokesperson said it "would like to employ another 42,000 if [it] could find them."

In the U.S., the company employs about 42,000 immigrants—or more than a third of its 120,000-member workforce—Bloomberg reported.

Tyson referred Newsweek to multiple fact-checks conducted by the Associated Press and other publications during the boycott calls and migrant worker claims.

The AP, citing Tyson, reported that 42,000 of the company's U.S. employees were noncitizens with work authorization. The company said Garrett Dolan, its associate director of human resources, "misspoke" in his comments about employing more immigrants, the outlet reported. Bloomberg told the AP it stood by its reporting.

Hamilton said the 42,000 figure "says nothing about the composition of the subcontractors it uses."

AFL has also homed in on Tyson's involvement in Tent Partnership for Refugees, a network that seeks to connect refugees with jobs. According to Tent's website, in 2022, Tyson Foods committed to hiring 2,500 refugees over three years in the United States.

The company's 2023 goals included mentoring 50 refugee women and 50 Hispanic refugees over three years in U.S. cities, the website said, and mentoring 50 Afghan refugees over three years in cities across Northwest Arkansas, including Fayetteville, Springdale and Bentonville.

According to Tyson Foods' website, the company produces about 20 percent of the beef, pork and chicken in the U.S. under brand names that include Tyson, Jimmy Dean, Hillshire Farm, BallPark and State Fair.

The website said its sales for the 2022 fiscal year totaled $53 billion, with 36 percent attributed to beef sales and 32 percent attributed to chicken sales.