Editorial: Ernst on deportation

Storm Lake and Buena Vista County can take some measure of relief that Sen. Joni Ernst assured us she does not believe there will be mass deportation of immigrants from workplace raids of local food processors. Ernst campaigned with President-elect Trump in October and said she understands his administration’s intentions. She told the Storm Lake Times Pilot that deportations will start with criminal aliens.

“I think this is the smart way to do it,” Ernst told our reporter Allison Moore. “Let’s just start there.”

Ernst and Sen. Chuck Grassley of the Judiciary Committee usually are of like mind.

Whatever Trump may have suggested to Ernst is interesting but you should not bet the farm on it. His deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, last summer accused Tyson Foods of discriminating against US citizens by hiring undocumented immigrants. Tyson strongly denied the allegation. It has always insisted that it does not hire undocumented workers. We have known undocumented residents who work in food processing. It is an open secret that undocumented workers populate the dairy industry in Northwest Iowa.

Trump said during the campaign that he would deport legal residents, including residents with Temporary Protected Status. His “border czar” Thomas Homan supports separation of undocumented parents from their children who are US Citizens.

Trump has said that he intends to keep his promises.

Ernst has a different interpretation. Her friend, Senate Majority Leader-designate John Thune, hails from South Dakota, which has a large dairy, beef cattle and meatpacking footprint. He knows who cuts the meat, so does Ernst, and so does Trump.

During the night of the Covid pandemic, Trump ordered immigrants into the meatpacking plants. His agriculture secretary declared them “essential workers” and described them as heroes. It was a tacit admission that immigrant labor is at the foundation of our food security.

Mass deportation in Storm Lake would be a disaster for the community and would send shock waves through the meat supply chain. Prices would shoot up at the grocery store, for certain. Raids will happen. Ernst says it probably won’t be here.

That would be the pragmatic approach. Every administration seeks to deport criminal aliens — the Obama Administration set records at it. Trump probably is not inclined to double meat prices with a few well-placed raids that could cripple production.

Everyone involved in exploiting immigrants and refugees understand that they must keep them living in fear so they do not organize. Even if you are legal, Trump keeps the threat alive. Storm Lake is getting the signals that it probably will be business as usual. You just never know. That is the point of it. Just be grateful that someone doesn’t come to pen you up, like they did before in Storm Lake. It feels like we are living in a suspended police state waiting for the door to be kicked in. We take our assurances from Sen. Ernst as we can.

THE MIDWEST AND Great Plains will be well-represented in the corridors of power. As noted, Sen. Thune was elected majority leader. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem was named Secretary of Homeland Security. Noem patrolled the border along with Gov. Kim Reynolds, and talks tough on immigration. Noem knows full well you cannot milk the cows without Latinos, many of whom live here under threatened Temporary Protected Status. It will be up to her to coordinate deportation and detention.

North Dakota’s Doug Burgum was named Secretary of Interior. Burgum and the nominee for Energy Secretary, oil company CEO Chris Wright, will grease drilling and fracking. Sean Duffy of Wisconsin is nominated for Transportation, and Pete Hegseth of Minnesota was tabbed for Defense.

No word as this is written who might succeed Iowan Tom Vilsack as Secretary of Agriculture. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., nominated to lead Health and Human Services, has a lot of interesting ideas about food and agriculture that conflict with our modern production system. He is a harsh critic of the agrichemical industry. He will have some authority over how food is produced and deemed to be safe. It could challenge many of our assumptions.