The Indiana attorney general is asking meat processing giant, Tyson Foods, to answer some “tough questions” about the company’s hiring practices regarding legal and illegal migrants. 

Todd Rokita sent a civil investigative demand to Tyson Food’s factory at Logansport as part of his office’s investigation into “human labor trafficking.”

In a statement, Mr. Rokita said, “The vast number of additional people coming into our communities is alarming, and that’s just from the standpoint of seeing the staggering number of resources being put towards this fight — Every. Single. Day.”

“When you have an open border and an influx of people coming over illegally by the millions, we can’t have companies incentivizing this criminal behavior by offering jobs for cheap labor. It’s not fair to those looking for employment or to our law enforcement, local hospitals and healthcare facilities, taxpayers that fund these services, and our housing and labor markets,” he added.

The Indiana attorney general’s office is investigating “coordinated efforts among international and local nonprofit ‘refugee settlement’ organizations and employers, like Tyson Foods, to bring large numbers of migrants to Indiana.”

Mr. Rokita sent similar CIDs to the Cass County Health Department, the Logansport Community School Corp., the Berry Global Group, the Tent Partnership for Refugees, God is Good, and the Jackson County Industrial Development Corp.

Local officials in Indiana have been raising concerns about the influx of migrants at Logansport, which has a population of 18,000. Estimates of how many migrants have traveled to Logansport over the past three years range from 2,000 to 5,000. 

Officials at Logansport have raised concerns about a surge in migrant teenagers arriving at the city, often without parents. Fox 59 reports that Logansport Schools has seen enrollment surge by 150 students in the last three years. In 2021, there were 14 students from Haiti in schools at Logansport, and officials say this year, there are 207. The schools are also seeing an increase in migrant students from Guatemala, Cuba, Honduras, and El Salvador. 

The Cass County Health Department administrator, Serenity Alter, told county commissioners she does not believe the school district can “sustain what they are doing right now” with the increase in students. However, school officials are more optimistic that the system can accommodate the influx. The superintendent at Logansport, Michele Starkey, told Fox 59 that the school system can “take in everyone who comes through the door.”

She added that some migrant teenagers work second or third-shift to support their families and then go to school for a few hours a day. They are allowed to work in Logansport with authorizations given to migrants who qualify for Temporary Protected Status.

One of the main drivers of migrants traveling to Logansport is the Tyson food plant, according to a migrant who spoke to Fox 59. A Haitian migrant, identified as Walkens, told the local news station that he moved to Logansport four years ago for a job opportunity at the Tyson factory, saying, “Tyson is good money.”

Tyson did not respond to a request for comment from the Sun by the time of publication.

However, in a statement from October, the meat processing company said, “Everyone working at our facility is legally authorized to do so, and the majority of those team members are American citizens or permanent residents.”

The company said it does not “facilitate” or “excuse or in any other way participate in the use of child labor,” and added that it participates with the federal government’s E-Verify program. 

Tyson partnered with the nonprofit organization Tent Partnership for Refugees in 2022 and promised to hire 2,500 refugees over three years. 

Amid the influx of migrants at Logansport and other towns in Indiana, Mr. Rokita announced earlier this month that he was opening an investigation into overcrowding of housing facilities and potential human trafficking.