Update: Immigrant meatpacking workers are still under threat

Earlier FERN reporting showed how Haitian immigrants at the JBS meatpacking plant in Colorado were being exploited. Now, we return to this story with a podcast update on their lives during the Trump administration's crackdown.

Ted Genoways, October 14, 2025

Media partner

Special Series

Trouble On The Line

9-Part Special Series

Independent. Investigative. Nonprofit.

A shipwreck killed 41 crew and 5,900 cattle. The brutal business behind it goes on.

Andrew S. Lewis, October 8, 2025

Bloomberg Businessweek

Special Issue

Food and Power in the West

Podcast: FERN’s special issue on food and power in the west

FERN Editorial, September 30, 2025

FERN’s Friday Feed: The tyranny of family dinner

October 17, 2025

Editor’s Desk: The deadly livestock market you’ve never heard of

October 9, 2025

Special Issue

Food and Power in the West

Documentary short: FERN’s special issue on food and power

FERN Editorial, September 30, 2025

Special Series

Trouble On The Line

How refugees remade a Colorado meatpacking town

Esther Honig, September 23, 2025

Is farm labor at risk?

Claire Kelloway, September 22, 2025

Successful Farming

Special Issue

Food and Power in the West

Guardians of our food

Rick Bass, September 19, 2025

High Country News

Special Issue

Food and Power in the West

The joyful responsibility of cutting fish

Laureli Ivanoff, September 18, 2025

High Country News

FERN’s Friday Feed: Meatpackers, labor, and the remaking of middle America

September 26, 2025

FERN Podcasts

Special episode: A collaboration with the Unconfined podcast

October 7, 2025

FERN’S special issue on food and power, with High Country News

September 30, 2025

How the MAHA Commission’s strategy doc was a win for Big Ag

September 23, 2025

The U.S. has lost 1.2 million immigrants since January. What happens now?

September 9, 2025

What happens if RFK Jr.’s radical reinvention of the food system…isn’t so radical?

August 26, 2025

What makes MAHA so popular?

August 12, 2025

Small town’s residents find common ground at the Grange

August 5, 2025

Did Coca-Cola really say it was going to switch to sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup?

July 29, 2025

How bad are the SNAP cuts in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Act?

July 15, 2025

Does anyone in Biloxi care about seafood fraud?

July 8, 2025

Trump stopped immigration enforcement raids on food system workers – but not for long

July 1, 2025

Introducing FERN’s new podcast on food politics in the MAHA age

June 24, 2025

Ghana’s toxic gold rush

Jocelyn C. Zuckerman, September 15, 2025

Special Issue

Food and Power in the West

The making of an Indigenous food lab

B. Toastie Oaster, September 15, 2025

High Country News

Special Issue

Food and Power in the West

Eating bitterness

Paisley Rekdal, September 12, 2025

High Country News

Trump called renewable energy ‘stupid,’ and red states fell in line

Stephen Robert Miller, September 10, 2025

Special Issue

Food and Power in the West

Big Ag is threatening New Mexico’s water supply

Jeremy Miller, September 8, 2025

High Country News

Special Issue

Food and Power in the West

Acknowledging the work of farmworkers through art

Jennifer Sahn, September 5, 2025

Load More Posts

FERN Special Series

Special Issue

Food and Power in the West

11-Part Special Series

Special Series

Trouble On The Line

9-Part Special Series

Special Series

The Problem With Ultraprocessed Foods

5-Part Special Series

Special Series

Solving Food Waste

6-Part Special Series

Special Issue

Switchyard Food Issue

James Beard Award Winning Series

Special Series

The Farm Bill Fight

James Beard Award Winning Series

Projects

The Biodiversity Crisis

Topics