While big cities all over the country are struggling with the influx of immigrants, it's not just happening there. In small towns across Alabama, Haitian immigrants are showing up in buses and exposing problems that come with hosting an influx of people who don't speak the language and who may or may not have employment. What isn't clear is how much of it is due to the 'push' of immigrants from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and how much of it is due to the 'pull' of immigrants by the chicken processing companies. Most recently, these immigrant issues have been seen in the small Alabama cities of Sylacauga and Albertville and larger cities such as Athens.
In Sylacauga, residents complained to the city council about the 50 or more Haitians being dropped off secretly by buses. The local city council leaders claim to have no information on why the immigrants were bused in nor who is sponsoring them. They refused to discuss the situation with residents at a recent council meeting. According to Homeland Security rules, these people must have a supporter in the US, have undergone security vetting, and meet other eligibility criteria. Now, 50 or so people may not sound like a lot, but it can have an impact in a town of around 12,700. Residents claim that employment options are already extremely limited, and there are no provisions for teaching these Haitian children in the local school system in their native Creole language. In addition, local law enforcement struggles with interactions due to the same language issues.
Immigrants in small-town Alabama are not a new thing. The small town of Albertville, AL, had almost an undetectably small number of Hispanic immigrants according to the 1990 census (77 out of 14,500), and now the 2020 census shows them to be almost 34% of the population (7,545 out of 22 386). Why and how would these people end up in a small Alabama town so far away from the border? It all comes down to one thing, chicken processing plants. Immigrants flocked to the small city in the mid-1990s to work at the local chicken processing plants owned by Wayne Foods, Pilgrims Pride, and Tyson Foods. That's old news, now it seems that there is a new flow of Haitian immigrants into the city as well.
Chickens are big business in Alabama. The Encyclopedia of Alabama states that:
"…As of 2018, Alabama ranked second in the nation in terms of broiler production, processing approximately 21 million birds per week, or about 1.1 billion birds annually…"
Chicken is king not just in Albertville and Marshall County. These chicken hatcheries and processing plants are scattered throughout the Northern Alabama area, in Russellville, Cullman, and the small town of Jasper in Walker County, where the chicken processor Mar-Jac is listed as the largest manufacturer and here.
The question then is whether these plants are importing this labor legally and appropriately. That is where the story gets a little bit fuzzy. These major companies use staffing agencies for vetting applicants to determine if they are allowed to work. Many times, the staffing firms are the direct employers of the workers instead of the large company, which lets the processing company be somewhat unaccountable.
There have been concerns over potential human trafficking at these plants, and there are at least two different situations where underage immigrant children have been found working in dangerous areas inside of these processing plants. This has been seen both in the Cullman, AL, and in Enterprise, AL areas. The threat of a shutdown of these plants by the federal government would have serious repercussions for not only the workers at the plant but the suppliers and customers as well.
The reason for the current influx of Haitian immigrants still remains unclear as to whether they have been 'pulled' in by the chicken processors like the Hispanic immigrants before them or whether they are being 'pushed' into Alabama by the Biden DHS. Some residents even question whether city leaders are pulling in these immigrants to fill their personal rental properties and receive government subsidies.
Of course, the other question is whether this is being done to change the demographics and the voting characteristics of the area. Recently, an illegal immigrant from the Russellville, AL area pleaded guilty to assuming the identity of a US citizen in 2011 and to have voted in both the 2016 and 2020 elections. Of course, that is just one instance, but it does point out that it can and does happen and that prompted claims from AL Senator Tuberville that shipping in Haitian immigrants is a Democrat ploy.
Ben Robbins, the state representative from the Sylacauga AL area, also believes that much of this is fraud from the Federal government. He recently stated, "…what is happening is there is just greed. These NGOs are getting money through grants and other ways ... to 'help' Haitians. And all they are doing is giving them a sheet of paper that says, 'Hey, go apply at these four places.' They're ending up basically in the arms of people who have no concern for them and are, in essence, trafficking them from point A to point B and squeezing money out of the immigrant at every turn, every corner. I cannot understate how toxic it is, how terrible it is to our community and to the immigrant."
What's the answer? What came first the chicken or the immigrant? In the end it is most likely a little bit of push from the DHS and a little bit of pull from businesses and organizations that seek to profit from the immigrant's situation. Both sides seem to be profiting off of it at the expense of the local citizens. As you eat your chicken wings while watching football don't forget they were probably packaged by an immigrant in Alabama.
What Came First: The Chicken or the Immigrant?
- by: Dave Swinford
- 09/13/2024
- Source:
UncoverDC
- 09/13/2024
