Nearly 60% of Nebraska voted for Donald Trump last November.
There is perhaps no state more dependent on immigrants than Nebraska.
Oops.
This excellent NPR story highlights the challenges this Trump-loving state now faces as a result of its voters’ choices.
“Nebraska is one of the top meat producers in the U.S. It also has one of the worst labor shortages in the country,” reporter Jasmine Garsd writes. “For every 100 jobs, there are only 39 workers, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.”
She mentions the executive director of the state’s pork producer’s association as smiling “wearily” as colleagues urge attracting more immigrants to the state to help fill positions … and yet they vote for the guy who wants to deport them all.
Datawrapper Content
On the other hand, there remains a staunch belief that Trump won’t actually carry out his mass deportation threats. “There’s no way it can,” the pork guy says about the deportations.
And for now, maybe he’s right. Trump seems more interested in using performative raids in Chicago and other sanctuary cities to demonize local Democratic politicians and officials who refuse to do his bidding (which they are generally permitted to do). Trump may rip a few dozen undocumented immigrants out of their new community, but he’s more interested in a raid’s propaganda value than he is in its results.
If he really wants to deport masses of undocumented immigrants, there’s an obvious place to start: red states. Many Republican governors have offered to help. Take Nebraska.
“I am encouraged by the strength of President Trump’s immigration and border security orders,” Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen said in a statement this past Tuesday. “The state of Nebraska will support these efforts. On my return to Lincoln this week, I will issue an executive order to all state agencies directing them to cooperate to the full extent of the law with federal efforts to enforce our immigration laws and affirmatively support the apprehension of criminal aliens.”
The NPR story quotes a lovely parishioner at an Episcopalian church who is working to serve and protect the state’s immigrant community: “I think there’s still enough in our Nebraska DNA that we do depend on each other. We come from storms, weather incidents, where you depend on your neighbors and you go dig somebody out of a snowstorm. Even if you don’t really like them, you go dig them out because it’s what you do. Because we’re Nebraska.”
That parishioner says people in the state “understand the economic necessity of [immigrant labor], and we are not stupid.”
However, given Nebraska’s overwhelming vote for Trump, that assertion seems debatable.
Thank you to the Daily Kos community who continues to fight so hard with Daily Kos. Your reader support means everything. We will continue to have you covered and keep you informed, so please donate just $3 to help support the work we do.
