When Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided Glenn Valley Foods in Omaha, Nebraska, on Tuesday, the reaction from political elites and media figures was predictable: doom.
The company, a meatpacking operation employing 140 workers, was expected to collapse after 74 employees—over 50% of its workforce—were found to be in the country illegally, despite the company’s use of E-Verify.
But what happened next completely upended the foundational myth of modern immigration policy: that Americans won’t do these jobs.
Just 48 hours after the raid, every seat in the waiting area of Glenn Valley Foods was filled with Americans—many of them Spanish-speaking—eager to apply. Applicants came in for interviews, training sessions, and onboarding. This was not a ghost town or a shuttered factory. It was a bustling example of what can happen when illegal competition is removed from the labor market.
The suggestion that Americans “won’t do certain jobs” has long been a talking point for those promoting lax immigration enforcement. Presidents, governors, mayors, and pundits have said—without evidence—that industries like food processing, construction, and hospitality simply cannot function without illegal labor.
Former President George W. Bush said in 2007:
“You cannot fully enforce the border so long as people are trying to sneak in this country to do jobs Americans are not doing.”Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass just said:
“We have entire sectors of our economy that cannot function without immigrant labor.”
But the Omaha case disproves this narrative in real time.
LA Mayor Karen Bass: “I don’t think the President understands that we have entire sectors of our economy that can not function without immigrant labor.” pic.twitter.com/Z4ksFL5Q6y
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) June 15, 2025
The truth is that illegal labor doesn’t fill jobs Americans won’t do—it fills jobs Americans are blocked from competing for. Illegal workers form a compliant, low-cost labor pool that doesn’t complain, unionize, or negotiate. Employers benefit not just from lower wages, but from silence and vulnerability. That’s not a market force; that’s exploitation.
Throughout history, labor shortages haven’t empowered workers—they’ve led to coercive labor systems: slavery, indentured servitude, peonage. The use of illegal labor is just the modern variant of that system.
Glenn Valley’s own president admitted some of the now-deported workers had been employed for over 15 years. That kind of long-term employment by unauthorized workers raises serious questions about enforcement and intent. E-Verify is only as effective as those who use it honestly. The presence of 74 illegal employees strongly suggests systematic evasion or willful neglect.
