{"id":9129,"date":"2026-04-10T09:00:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T14:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/10\/in-rural-missouri-immigration-crackdown-reaches-beyond-the-workplace\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T09:00:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T14:00:25","slug":"in-rural-missouri-immigration-crackdown-reaches-beyond-the-workplace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/10\/in-rural-missouri-immigration-crackdown-reaches-beyond-the-workplace\/","title":{"rendered":"In rural Missouri, immigration crackdown reaches beyond the workplace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
\n

Milan, Missouri, in north-central Sullivan County, is a community shaped in part by immigration. About 46% of residents identify as Latino, and more than 28% were born outside the United States. Downtown Milan is seen here on Friday, February 27 (M\u00f3nica Cordero, Investigate Midwest).<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Eliseo Affholter noticed a car following him, moving slowly as he walked through the streets of Milan.<\/p>\n

Walking was his wind-down routine after work at a Kraft Heinz plant, where on Feb. 24, he had just finished a 12-hour overnight shift.<\/p>\n

As he walked along East Grand Avenue, he saw flashing lights and vehicles lined up behind a stopped car, including patrol cars, an SUV and a pickup truck.<\/p>\n

As Affholter stepped closer, he raised his phone to record.<\/p>\n

One agent identified himself as an officer with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and asked in Spanish what country Affholter was a citizen of. \u201cFrom here,\u201d Affholter replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you have papers? \u2026Are you legally in the United States?\u201d the agent asked, as two others stood nearby.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Eliseo Affholter arrived in the United States at age 13 and was later adopted by a U.S. citizen. On Feb. 24, an ICE agent broke his phone camera, according to Affholter, after he was stopped and questioned about his nationality in Milan, Missouri. photo taken Feb. 27 ( M\u00f3nica Cordero, Investigate Midwest).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He stopped recording when an officer grabbed the phone from his hand, according to Affholter.<\/p>\n

When he asked why he was being detained, he said one agent responded in English: \u201cWe have the right to assume that you\u2019re an illegal alien.\u201d<\/p>\n

That same day, federal immigration agents arrested three people in Milan, including two men from Senegal and another from Guatemala.<\/p>\n

Over the past year, President Trump\u2019s deportation campaign has reached deep into agricultural regions that rely heavily on immigrant labor, including raids on farms and at meat-packing facilities<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Milan, a north Missouri town of about 1,800, is home to a large Smithfield Foods pork processing plant. The Kraft Heinz plant, where Affholter worked, is 33 miles east in Kirksville.<\/p>\n

But the February arrests in Milan did not take place inside the local meatpacking plant; they occurred along nearby roads and in residential areas where workers live and travel to and from their shifts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey may not be going into the plant, but they\u2019re in the community,\u201d said Axel Fuentes, executive director of the Rural Community Workers Alliance, a worker advocacy organization that supports immigrant and refugee food industry workers in rural Missouri.<\/p>\n

Any immigration enforcement expansion within agricultural communities could have been aided by a September 2025 U.S. Supreme Court decision that broadened the scope of what agents can consider \u201creasonable suspicion.\u201d Arrests appeared to increase<\/a> after the decision, which allowed agents to consider a mix of factors, including apparent race or ethnicity, language or accent, location, and type of work, when making stops.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome would say that the Supreme Court, in effect, encouraged ICE to engage in racial profiling in immigration enforcement,\u201d said Kevin R. Johnson, a law professor at the University of California, Davis School of Law. \u201cThe truth of the matter is, I think that\u2019s accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson said such practices have long been permitted under Supreme Court precedent. In a 1975 decision, United States v. Brignoni-Ponce<\/em><\/a>, the Supreme Court ruled that immigration agents cannot stop someone based solely on \u201cMexican appearance,\u201d but may consider it as one factor among others.<\/p>\n

Affholter, 36, is a U.S. citizen of Maya descent, born in Guatemala. He arrived in the United States at 13 and was later adopted by a white American man. He has lived here for most of his life.<\/p>\n

In a statement, an ICE spokesperson said Affholter \u201cdeliberately interfered\u201d with a federal operation and \u201cverbally\u201d assaulted agents, prompting officers to question him about his immigration status and request identification.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019m an animal, like I\u2019m worthless,\u201d Affholter said. \u201cLike I don\u2019t deserve to be here\u2026 because of my skin color, because of the language I speak. I speak Spanish, English and Mayan.\u201d Affholter was referring to Mam, an Indigenous Mayan language spoken in the western highlands of Guatemala and the state of Chiapas, Mexico.<\/p>\n

Across Milan, residents told Investigate Midwest that there is fear immigration enforcement will not only target workplaces but also neighborhoods and streets.<\/p>\n

In the first months of his presidency, Trump sent federal agents to farms and agricultural operations, drawing backlash from some supporters who said the actions made it harder to hire undocumented workers, who make up 44% of all farm workers, according to U.S. government surveys<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trump announced a temporary pause<\/a> on raids in the agriculture and meat-processing sectors, only to reverse the decision days later<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By early February 2026, more than 68,000 immigrants were being held in ICE detention nationwide, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse<\/a> at Syracuse University. Most were arrested by ICE, and nearly three-quarters had no criminal conviction, often only minor offenses like traffic violations.<\/p>\n

Although there is no publicly stated directive establishing a formal shift in strategy, advocates and residents say enforcement is increasingly occurring outside plants.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince last year, we\u2019ve seen arrests following routine court appearances, such as for traffic violations, where people are then transferred into federal custody,\u201d Fuentes said.<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

A family divided and displaced<\/h4>\n

\t<\/p>\n

One of the people arrested by ICE in Milan was Victorino Mart\u00ednez-Ch\u00e1vez, 46, a Guatemalan national, who worked a cleaning shift at the Smithfield meat-processing plant, the town\u2019s largest employer, according to state workforce data.<\/p>\n

In a statement, an ICE spokesperson said Mart\u00ednez-Chavez, who had previously been deported, was arrested during a targeted enforcement operation and had \u201crefused to obey lawful commands to exit his vehicle, threatening officer safety and forcing officers to remove him from the vehicle.\u201d The spokesperson added that Mart\u00ednez-Chavez had previously been deported and reentered the United States, which is a felony offense.<\/p>\n

Affholter\u2019s video of the arrest, which was reviewed by Investigate Midwest, shows the driver\u2019s side window of Mart\u00ednez-Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s vehicle already broken when ICE agents left the scene.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Milan is home to a large Smithfield Foods pork processing plant. The Kraft Heinz plant is 33 miles east in Kirksville.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two other men \u2014 Serigne Ciss, 33, and Thierno Amar, 33, both from Senegal \u2014 were also arrested, according to ICE. The agency said they had entered the United States after crossing the \u201cborder illegally\u201d during the Biden administration, according to an ICE email.<\/p>\n

Minutes before his arrest, Mart\u00ednez-Ch\u00e1vez had dropped off his daughter and other children at school.<\/p>\n

At home, his wife, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, was waiting for him to return home when she received a call from her stepdaughter, who said Mart\u00ednez-Ch\u00e1vez had been detained.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started crying,\u201d the wife, 42, recalled. \u201cWho\u2019s going to take care of me now?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mart\u00ednez-Ch\u00e1vez was the sole breadwinner. His wife does not work outside the home and cares for the three youngest children, including one who is just 18 months old. She does not speak English and speaks limited Spanish; her primary language is Mam.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The wife moved to the United States three years ago to join her husband, who was already living in the community. That morning, beyond the fear, they faced immediate uncertainty: a pending paycheck and a week of vacation time they were unsure would be honored.<\/p>\n

Days before the arrest, Mart\u00ednez-Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s wife learned she was pregnant. Although she wants to return to Guatemala to reunite with her husband, who has already been deported, an error on her baby\u2019s birth certificate has prevented her from obtaining a passport to take him out of the country, leaving her effectively trapped.<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

A workplace under pressure\u00a0<\/h4>\n

\t<\/p>\n

Over the past several decades, the meatpacking industry has shifted from major urban centers to smaller rural communities closer to livestock production, driven by larger-scale plants and changing supply-chain economics. Access to labor remains critical everywhere.<\/p>\n

There are more than 7,000 inspected meat, poultry, and egg processing plants operating across the country, with more than one-fifth in rural and nonmetropolitan areas, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Missouri ranks 14th among states in the number of meatpacking plants.<\/p>\n

This shift has brought new economic life to many small towns, including Milan.<\/p>\n

The Smithfield facility in Milan is classified as a large plant, employing at least 500 workers, a workforce equivalent to more than a quarter of the town\u2019s residents<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nearly half of residents identify as Hispanic<\/a>, and more than a quarter were born outside the United States, more than double the rate in Missouri.<\/p>\n

Nationwide, nearly half of meat-processing workers are foreign-born workers, according to a 2022 report by the American Immigration Council<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe American economy, and particularly the American food system, is entirely dependent on various forms of immigration, both legal and not so legal,\u201d said Elizabeth Cullen Dunn, a geography professor at Indiana University who studies migration and labor.<\/p>\n

She said enforcement actions are often designed to be visible without disrupting production.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t want to shut the meatpacking plants down,\u201d she said. \u201cThat would cost the meatpacking companies millions of dollars a day.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Milan\u2019s Smithfield plant was not raided in February, the effects of area arrests were felt the following day.<\/p>\n

Ray Atkinson, senior director of external affairs at Smithfield, said in an email that \u201cthere was no interruption to our business on Tuesday and we have not had any staffing issues,\u201d referring to the day of the ICE arrests.<\/p>\n

Workers described a different reality.<\/p>\n

Four plant workers, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, said operations began later than usual on Wednesday because several overnight sanitation workers failed to report for work. Some were afraid to leave their homes after the arrests, according to the workers.<\/p>\n

The burden shifted onto those who showed up.<\/p>\n

A man in his 50s who has worked at the Smithfield plant for about two decades said the pace of repetitive hand movements had increased, raising the risk of injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the faster pace, you could cause an accident or cut a coworker\u2026 our hands are constantly moving, and we\u2019re working with knives.\u201d<\/p>\n

A woman in her late 40s said that with fewer workers, breaks have become harder to take. She said employees are typically allowed to use the bathroom twice per shift.<\/p>\n

Atkinson did not respond to a follow-up email seeking comment on the reported disruptions.<\/p>\n

While the workers described short-term disruption, the company has warned investors about broader labor shortages, particularly in rural areas where some of its operations are located.<\/p>\n

In its latest annual filing<\/a>, Smithfield said that new immigration legislation could increase the costs of recruiting, training and retaining employees, as well as compliance costs related to reviewing workers\u2019 immigration status, and could lead to employee shortages. The company also said that increased enforcement of existing immigration laws by government authorities could disrupt portions of its workforce or operations.<\/a><\/p>\n

In poultry plants, workers may process as many as 140 birds per minute, said Navina Khanna, executive director of the HEAL Food Alliance, a national coalition that works with food system workers. In pork processing facilities, workers can repeat the same cut up to 9,000 times a day.<\/p>\n

The risks are not new, but they can intensify when fewer workers are on the line. A recent study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that 81% of poultry-processing workers<\/a> and 46% of pork-processing workers<\/a> face an increased risk of musculoskeletal disorders<\/a>, conditions typically characterized by pain and limitations in mobility and dexterity, that can limit a person\u2019s ability to work and participate in daily life.<\/p>\n

Concerns about working conditions in meatpacking plants have surfaced in other parts of the country. Last month, at a JBS beef plant in Greeley, Colorado, workers went on strike, citing unsafe conditions, fast line speeds and limited breaks, according to The Associated Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With fewer workers on the line, there is less oversight to ensure \u201cany kind of safety,\u201d forcing employees to work \u201cfaster\u201d and \u201clonger,\u201d Khanna said, adding that the combination of staffing shortages and increased line speeds is making conditions \u201cmore dangerous\u201d for workers.<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Economic effects in a rural town<\/h4>\n

\t<\/p>\n

In many rural communities, immigrant workers are not only part of the labor force but also a key source of economic stability. Research shows they contribute more in taxes than they receive in public benefits and help offset population decline, a trend that has become especially important in small towns across the Midwest.<\/p>\n

In congressional testimony in 2023<\/a>, David Bier of the Cato Institute, a Washington-based public policy research organization, said immigrants \u201cgenerate, in inflation-adjusted terms, nearly $1 trillion in state, local, and federal taxes, almost $300 billion more than they receive in government benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the center of Milan is the courthouse. On the surrounding four blocks, at least one business on each corner is tied to the town\u2019s Latino community.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Milan, in north-central Sullivan County, is a community shaped in part by immigration. About 46% of residents identify as Latino, and more than 28% were born outside the United States. Downtown Milan seen here on Feb. 27, (M\u00f3nica Cordero, Investigate Midwest).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very, very difficult,\u201d said an immigrant from Guatemala who has lived in Milan for nearly two decades. \u201cIt makes my stomach turn to think that you keep fighting and fighting, and the problems don\u2019t go away.\u201d<\/p>\n

The woman, who asked not to be identified for fear of her immigration status, owns a restaurant and a small grocery store that operate out of the same space. She said she started her own business so she would not have to rely on false documents to work and so she could contribute to the town\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

She said fear in the community over current immigration policies has hurt her business.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re pushing us into a corner,\u201d she said. \u201cYou feel like sooner or later, it\u2019s your turn.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a good day, she said, she used to make about $1,000. Now, her sales can sometimes drop to around $100.<\/p>\n

She also operates a money-transfer service. She said weekly money transfers, called remittances, once reached about $40,000 but dropped to roughly $6,000 in the last week of February.<\/p>\n

She said the decline in sales began in 2025 and has forced her to reduce inventory. She used to travel to Kansas four or five times a month to restock products. Now she goes twice, sometimes only once.<\/p>\n

At another store in downtown Milan, money-transfer services have dropped by about half. The owner said she now carries about 15% of the goods she once stocked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t start rounding up and deporting people, and terrorizing, and getting people to self-deport, when they make up about 20% of the workforce without expecting major negative impacts on the economy,\u201d said Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank.<\/p>\n

Meat and poultry processing employs about 560,000 workers nationwide, with a combined payroll of $30 billion, underscoring how deeply local economies depend on the industry, according to the Economic Policy Institute<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The economic effects extend beyond daily routines and local businesses.<\/p>\n

Another woman, who also asked not to be identified because of her immigration status, said fear has reshaped even the most routine parts of her family\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

She avoids going to Walmart on weekends, she said, because the nearest store is a 45-minute drive \u2014 and she worries she could be stopped along the way.<\/p>\n

She has two children, ages 7 and 9. The younger child is autistic. Weekend outings, once a regular activity, have largely stopped. The family used to go to Pizza Hut, something the children looked forward to.<\/p>\n

Her older daughter has begun to grasp the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe says that when she grows up, she hopes she\u2019ll be able to fix our papers so we don\u2019t have to live with this fear all the time,\u201d the woman said.<\/p>\n

Affholter, the Kraft Heinz employee temporarily held in Milan, has lived in the U.S. for roughly two-thirds of his life. But the possibility of being stopped on the street because of his appearance has made him question his place in a country he considers his own.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I am experiencing now is not normal. I can\u2019t accept that this is normal,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause that\u2019s not the America I know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what he meant, he paused.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat we are all equal,\u201d he said. \u201cThat we are all free. No matter your roots, no matter your color, no matter what language you speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article<\/a> first appeared on Investigate Midwest<\/a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Milan, Missouri, in north-central Sullivan County, is a community shaped in part by immigration. About 46% of residents identify as Latino, and more than 28% were born outside the United States. Downtown Milan is seen here on Friday, February 27 (M\u00f3nica Cordero, Investigate Midwest). 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