There's an even more recent example from the UK of the "Windrush" migrants. People who came here from ex UK colonies in the Caribbean and were entitled to be here, suddenly were told in 2018 they were illegal. Some were denied rights like NHS access, others were deported. Under UK law, anyone who had arrived from a Commonwealth country before 1973 had the right to citizenship. Only problem was the records of this had been destroyed and if the citizen had not been asked for proof in the meantime, they could not prove it themselves even though they thought themselves to be (and were) British.
https://en.wikipedia...indrush_scandal
Basically it was government incompetence which led to a generation of immigrants being wrongly termed illegal BECAUSE of the wider anti immigration sentiment of the time,
This is how completely innocent people end up getting caught up in anti immigration rhetoric but it doesn't even have to be that extreme. The fear of it can lead to people deciding to return to country of origin. While there wasn't as much anti Eastern European sentiment in the UK, there was some and Brexit stoked that. Some people just felt unwelcome and went home.
All of the above has a point and it had a HUGE impact on the food industry. When I first started working in food three decades ago, there were few immigrants working in it but also chilled prepared foods were not a big thing. The immigration in the 90s and 00s actually created the labour availability for a lot of these businesses to start or grow. What then happened after 2019 when Brexit kicked in, accelerated by Covid of course is a lot of that labour availability dropped. Some returned to home countries, people who wanted to travel now faced barriers and alternative markets for their labour within the EU seemed more attractive.
Fast forward and we are still feeling the impacts now. While the number of people unemployed is still high, the brutal truth is, most Brits see working on a production line as beneath them. It's hard work and while we have a reasonable minimum wage in the UK, it's not extravagant. The immigrants we do now get are often coming here not just unable to speak English but often not able to read their own language. Diversity of languages spoken in factories is now huge. 20+ used to be a lot. Now 40, 60+ is not uncommon.
This means for food safety, through these ICE raids in the US, you will lose illegal immigrants for sure but you will also lose some legal immigrants. Both in the legal and illegal pools, you might lose some of your best workers. If you can replace them, it might be with people from further afield who do not share your language, may not speak a word of it and may not be able to read. Additionally because of the longer distances, you may not be able to recruit people with cultural similarities to you. That can have influence on toileting habits (anyone who works in the food industry in the UK will know what I mean.)
What problems is this causing? Everything from I've had crap walked around by someone (literally). I've had people who cannot easily be trained and struggle to prove their understanding if they are. We've had shifts just not turn up for work. We have had abuses where people who are in supervisory roles have been abusing their staff verbally and financially and other leaders were unaware. There is just so much complexity which comes with it all.
What can you do now? If I was in the US I'd be urging urgent investment into automation. You want to remove as many roles from your food factories as you can. At the same time I'd be making sure all your ducks are in a row on your right to work checks but then offer legal support to anyone caught up in these issues (to reassure your key workers so they don't leave). I'd also be looking to up pay and conditions now and do everything I could to bring in and retain staff. As you automate more, the skills needed are going to be higher. You REALLY need to retain your good people. I'd even be looking to see if (on the quiet) I could help some of the workers you have get legal status. I did the same in the UK with an employee who had a marital visa but was having to leave that relationship. Not sure how that process works in the US but it was possible in the UK and we did it on the quiet.
All just suggestions but I think it's a huge set of mistakes that the UK made even just in economic terms not even considering ethical ones. Just sharing so you guys may have some potential insight of where this could lead and the impacts on food safety of that potential end point.