By MELISSA GOLDIN (Associated Press)
Conservative influencers and politicians are urging people to boycott Tyson Foods because of false claims that the company is going to hire 52,000 people who entered the U.S. illegally.
A post circulating online claimed that Tyson is closing its facility in Perry, Iowa and laying off 1,200 workers to hire new illegal workers in states like New York. However, the company has refuted these claims and has no such plans.
The company is the latest target of boycott calls due to claims of “woke” policies, but it has denied the allegations and does not have plans to hire 52,000 workers who came to the U.S. illegally.
Here’s a closer look at the facts.
CLAIM: Tyson Foods is hiring 52,000 people who entered the U.S. illegally.
The company has clarified that it currently has no plans to hire 52,000 workers in the U.S., and all of its employees are required to have legal authorization for employment.
Tyson has dismissed the claims circulating online as false.
Tyson has stated that it typically has 5-8% of roles open in its 500 U.S. locations at any given time, all of which are open to qualified individuals who are legally authorized to work in the U.S.
Tyson Foods has emphasized its strong opposition to illegal immigration in its statement.
It has been disclosed that the company's U.S. workforce consists of approximately 120,000 employees, leaving around 6,000 to 9,600 open positions currently available.
In 2022, Tyson committed to hiring 2,500 refugees in the U.S. over three years as a member of the Tent Partnership for Refugees, a network of over 400 major multinational companies. Refugees are legally authorized to work in the U.S. as soon as they arrive.
People granted asylum in the U.S. can also legally work, as they typically qualify for work authorization 180 days after filing their asylum application. Those already granted asylum can legally work without an Employment Authorization Document.
Both refugees and individuals granted asylum have legal status in the U.S. Approximately 42,000 of Tyson's current U.S. employees are noncitizens with work authorization, including refugees, asylum seekers, and grantees.
The false claims appear to stem from a Bloomberg article about Tyson's commitment to hiring 52,000 people for factory jobs in 2024. Tyson clarified that this was a misstatement.
Bloomberg confirmed to the AP that it supports its reporting.
Scripps News published its own article two days later, which reported that Tyson wants to employ 52,000 asylum seekers for factory jobs. The outlet has since retracted the story for serious factual inaccuracies, stating that it was unable to confirm that number. But false claims about the figure spread widely on social media.
The reports led to calls for a boycott of Tyson, not the first company to face opposition to what are often described as “woke” policies. Bud Light sales decreased last year due to conservative backlash over the beer giant’s partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Target altered its LGBTQ+ merchandise before last year’s Pride month after customers confronted workers and tipped over displays.
Rebekah Wolf, senior policy counsel at the American Immigration Council, told the AP that U.S. companies depending on immigrant labor is “nothing new,” especially in industries such as meat processing with positions considered undesirable by many U.S. citizens.
Wolf stated that hiring individuals willing to take jobs that are not particularly attractive to others is crucial to the economy.
She also mentioned that the U.S. has “strong policies for ensuring that big companies like Tyson are employing people who are authorized to work in the United States.” She also highlighted that many employers have recently struggled to fill positions due to labor shortages.
Tyson announced on March 11 that it is closing a pork processing facility in Perry, Iowa, the town’s largest employer. The company did not provide specifics, saying the closure was related to “specific business reasons” and that the decision “is not related to our hiring efforts at other facilities.” The announcement came after the company closed a plant in both Virginia and Arkansas in 2023 and consolidated its corporate operations the year before.
Although Tyson declined to comment when asked how many of the Perry plant workers are non-citizens, it said in a statement that “any insinuation that we would cut American jobs to hire immigrant workers is completely false.”
The company also noted that it has encouraged the Perry employees to apply for other positions at Tyson.
Some social media alleged that following the Perry closure, Tyson will be hiring in New York, where there has been a massive influx of migrants. However, Tyson said that it “does not operate in New York nor does it have any plans to do so.”
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This is part of the AP’s effort to address widely shared false and misleading information that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.
