PHOTO BY LOGAN BRICKER
Democratic Representative Norma Hernandez in front of the Illinois Capitol building, following a Springfield visit from DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
Rural Illinois communities like Beardstown in Cass County and nearby Rushville in Schuyler County, which rely on immigrant labor to keep local economies afloat, risk depression or even collapse under President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration policy, according to immigration advocacy representatives.
Formerly known as the Oscar Meyer meatpacking plant, and eventually changing ownership to JBS in 2015, Beardstown’s agricultural economy is heavily dependent on the JBS meatpacking plant as a central source of employment and income. Providing around 1,900 jobs to the region, JBS frequently advertises job positions to immigrants in other countries looking for better work opportunities, especially in west Africa and at the U.S.-Mexico border. Additionally, the company offers these immigrants paid transportation, housing, advanced payment and help with attaining permanent U.S. residency and citizenship as incentives to move to Beardstown.
Due to its heavy use of immigrant labor, this meatpacking plant has had a significant impact on the local population’s ethnic diversity. According to U.S. Census Bureau data from between 2010 and 2020, Cass County, home to Beardstown, saw population increases of various nationalities, with a 239% increase in Indigenous, 166% Asian, 388% of two or more identities, and about a 4,000% increase in Pacific Islanders, while the white population dropped 19%, resulting in an overall 4% population decrease during that decade.
Following months of increased immigration enforcement presence across the country and particularly a recent visit to Springfield by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, immigrants, both documented and undocumented, are worried about deportations regardless of their status. While Trump has claimed he is only going after undocumented residents and immigrant criminals, recent actions by his administration to detain and deport citizens and documented immigrants have many worried about their future in the United States.
Western Illinois Dreamers, a support agency for immigrants and noncitizens, has four offices offering support services to the Monmouth, Beardstown, Springfield and Peoria areas. In an interview with Kate Cruz, an advocate from the organization’s Beardstown office, Cruz says the risk posed to the town’s economy and infrastructure by increased anti-immigration efforts is substantial.
“Anywhere there’s a large number of immigrants who support you or support your workforce will be affected,” said Cruz. “Your hotels will be affected, your food will be affected, everything will be affected because there are immigrants who work through all the small businesses. Nearly every store or restaurant in this town is either worked by immigrants, owned by immigrants or run by immigrants. By not having those populations around, we would become a ghost town…we would cease to exist.”
A focus on immigrant housing is another big factor when discussing immigration, according to Cruz: “A lot of the landlords had been given contracts for months at a time so that these people could get on their feet and get a job and figure out what they were going to do. JBS rents houses from these landlords to get people places to live, with the hog farms (also) renting homes.”
She says that because JBS often helps pay landlords or absorbs housing contract costs to keep these workers close to the factory, a hit to the main worker population would have devastating effects on the local housing market.
“We don’t have a lot of housing right now because of the number of people that they have brought to work,” said Cruz. “So it would be a big issue for those landlords not to have anybody to fill their homes.” She said a significant decrease in the number of immigrant workers could affect communities as far away as Macomb and Carthage. “Farming, agriculture, all of it will really be impacted.”
Beyond direct employment, the plant’s demand for livestock supports farmers across central Illinois. Its operations generate indirect jobs and income for local economies in services and amenities for residents through transportation, retail, immigrant housing, education and local services.
JBS has invested more than $45 million in capital improvements over the past five years, according to local publications. The company has also contributed $2.5 million to local community projects through its Hometown Strong initiative, funding infrastructure, food security and COVID-19 relief efforts.
Three Beardstown and Rushville immigrants interviewed for this article said they are happy with the area’s low prices and small-town feel. One Mexican restaurant worker in Rushville, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of putting family members at risk, said the overall feel of the town is great and he is hopeful about the future. As an aspiring entrepreneur, he says the large immigrant population is extremely welcoming and rarely experiences racism within the town, but he still hears from friends and family members about negative encounters.
“It’s crazy times right now,” said the restaurant worker. “I can understand where all that hesitance to change might come from. It is kind of weird to see someone you don’t know and who doesn’t look like you around here, but you also have to keep an open mind and try to understand their perspective.”
While he hasn’t regularly experienced targeted racism or comments on his status, he doesn’t deny that there are negative attitudes against immigrants, which he knows friends and relatives have experienced.
“We grew up in a Catholic household, and from what Jesus Christ has taught me, we have to be accepting even if we’re not on good terms with the person or if they’ve done something that wasn’t necessarily good towards us…you got to forgive and forget,” said the Latino worker. “That’s how I try to live my life. I don’t hold any resentment toward this, anything that’s been said to me or done to me. Holding on to something like that isn’t helping. It doesn’t help anyone. It doesn’t help me, and it doesn’t help them.”
In Springfield, Noem’s brief stop May 7 to talk up Trump’s immigration policies prompted Democratic lawmakers to speak at a response rally outside the Capitol near the Lincoln statue after Noem failed to show at the Governor’s Mansion. Protesters and immigrant advocacy groups filled the space as Illinois officials denounced Trump’s stance and promised legislative resistance.
Two state lawmakers at the rally – Sen. Karina Villa, D-West Chicago, and Rep. Norma Hernandez, D-Melrose Park – said the gathering was intended to tell the Trump administration “that we will not stand for breaking up our families and our hard-working community members here in the state of Illinois.”
“The immigrants who make these communities vibrant, communities like Beardstown, who depend on these workers for every part of their lives…I think that the threat is real,” said Villa. “I think that is why we are here, standing united and making sure the message is loud and clear to the Trump administration that we will not stand for breaking up our families and our hard-working community members here in the state of Illinois. We’re going to dig in and keep passing legislation that makes them mad. I promise you that.”
Hernandez, echoing Villa’s sentiments, further denounced the efforts of the Trump Administration and verbally attacked him personally.
“He’s out of touch with reality,” Hernandez said of Trump. “Who’s working in these farms? Who are the people who are actually in the workforce?” Hernandez said the House Latino Caucus needs to “dig in” to these communities and help them. She suggested connecting immigrants to advocacy organizations that help them understand their rights, as well as provide legal services.
Hernandez said the House Latino Caucus is prioritizing a new bill intended to “help protect public schools by not allowing federal enforcement to get into the building(s) without some kind of guidance from the school.”
“I think it’s important for us to be mindful of what fascism is, looking it up,” said Hernandez. “If we as Americans don’t stand up now, we’re going to see impacts that are going to take generations to remove.”