LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Jaelin Carpenter was stressed. Four people on her team of 26 at GE Appliances had learned that their immigration status had changed.
Under former President Biden, they’d been allowed to stay and work in the U.S. for two years, protected by a program set up to help people fleeing humanitarian crises back home. But the Trump administration abruptly canceled that program, revoking their legal status and their authorization to work. Carpenter fielded call after call from her panicked co-workers.
“They were calling me asking me if they’re on the run. ‘Does this mean I’m getting deported today?'” she recalls them asking.
As a team leader on a washing machine line and a union shop steward for IUE-CWA Local 83761, Carpenter was used to fielding all kinds of questions at work. But she wasn’t prepared for this.
Her co-workers were desperate for answers. Carpenter had none. That tore her down, she says.
Carpenter says the four team members were doing some of the most difficult tasks on the line, installing the hoses on the washers as well as affixing the platforms that hold the motors.
“These are people who are on critical jobs,” she says.
And suddenly, they were gone.
Sudden departures leave companies with holes
In recent months, immigrants working in manufacturing, food production and other industries have lost their jobs due to President Trump’s immigration policies — not as a result of immigration raids, but because Trump ended Biden-era programs that had provided them temporary permission to remain in the U.S. and get jobs.