Ranchers Have Beef With ICE Raids, Say Prices Will Spike

Ranchers in cattle country say President Trump's immigration crackdown is now hitting Americans in the meat aisle. Industry groups in Texas, Kansas, and Oklahoma say that stepped-up ICE activity has delayed shipments of thousands of cattle, costing producers millions and tightening a beef supply already strained by inflation and high feed costs. They warn the disruptions "will lead to higher beef prices for consumers," per the Washington Post. "These ICE operations are having a massive chilling effect on the legal, documented, skilled workers that put beef on the table and keep the cattle supply chain moving," the Texas Cattle Feeders Association, Kansas Livestock Association, and Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association said in a statement on X.

The industry groups say that such legal workers are avoiding feed yards, dairies, and transport hubs amid arrests in livestock communities, especially in southwest Kansas, which was hit hard in a spate of raids last week. Those raids, which the New York Times reports came "without warning" or the aid of local authorities, drew criticism from Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, an ally of President Trump who finds himself in a gritty reelection race. "When ICE operates in Kansas, it needs to coordinate with our local law enforcement," he said in a statement.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin counters that ICE is not targeting workplaces, but rather "heinous criminals, including murderers, rapists, and drug traffickers and illegal aliens" who have been ordered to leave the country, per the Times. The conflict follows President Trump's move to import hundreds of millions of pounds of cheaper foreign beef, a step that had already angered many ranchers, who had largely supported him. The trade groups' statement underscored that growing divide, notes the Post, saying that the ICE raids "are a costly and unnecessary impact to cattle producers already suffering from unwelcome political interference to both the markets as well as the physical supply chain."