Shift in federal immigration policies could have significant impact on a central Illinois town’s workforce
A sign for the JBS plant near the entrance to Beardstown, Illinois. Ben Felder/ Investigate Midwest
The west-central Illinois community of Beardstown in Cass County is home to about 6,000 people. This small town has multiple major businesses: Dot Foods, North America's largest food industry redistributor and JBS, the world's largest meat processing company. Over the years, several hundred immigrants have come to work for those companies in Beardstown with legal permission.
But as the Trump administration changes immigration policy, many of those people have had their humanitarian parole taken away, leaving them without authorization to be in America, without work, and wondering what happens next.
Beardstown has been revived in the past few decades because so many immigrants have come there to work, but now the city faces an uncertain future -- and so does the country's food supply chain. All of this is the focus of a recent in depth report by Investigative Midwest. The journalist who reported this story joins the program today.
GUEST
Juan Vassallo
Investigative Reporter, Investigate Midwest
