Tyson Foods under fire from group headed by former Trump adviser
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Photo: Worth Sparkman/Axios
A conservative group headed by a senior adviser to former President Donald Trump is accusing Tyson Foods of discriminating against American citizens.
Why it matters: A recent poll shows increasingly harsh political discourse around immigration, particularly from the GOP, is breaking through to everyday Americans, and some fear that anti-immigrant rhetoric will lead to an increase of hate crimes.
State of play: The group American First Legal, led by Stephen Miller — an advocate for conservative immigration policy — this week sent letters to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Department of Justice's Office of Immigrant and Employee Rights and the Iowa Civil Rights Commission.
- The organization claims Tyson employs 42,000 people who may be undocumented migrants or foreign nationals, including minors.
Reality check: A March Bloomberg story noted the meatpacking giant would hire immigrants through the Tent Partnership for Refugees and used the 42,000 number as its current workforce who are immigrants or refugees.
- The information was initially misreported by Scripps News, then conflated in social media to say the people were not working under legal status.
Between the lines: AFL has filed more than 30 complaints accusing major U.S. companies of adopting diversity policies that discriminate against men or white, Asian and heterosexual workers, Reuters reports.
What they're saying: "Tyson Foods is strongly opposed to illegal immigration, and we do not allow the employment of anyone under the age of 18 in any of our facilities," a spokesperson told Axios in an email.
- "Any insinuation that we would discriminate against Americans to hire immigrant workers is completely false."
Disclosure: Reporter Worth Sparkman formerly worked at Tyson Foods.