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# GRAPHIC: Hiring foreign visa workers skyrockets at meatpacking plants
- URL: https://www.investigatemidwest.org/graphic-hiring-foreign-visa-workers-skyrockets-at-meatpacking-plants/
- Published: 2024-08-06T06:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2024-08-06T06:00:00.000Z
- Description: The modern meatpacking industry was built on immigrant labor, but some of the biggest US meatpacking companies are filling labor shortages with foreign workers.
- Author: Sky Chadde, Investigate Midwest
- Tags: Labor, Meat industry, Data Harvest, TP::Explainer, H-2B, meatpacking, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-06-18 04:56

The H-2B temporary visa has traditionally been used to fill labor shortages in seasonal industries, such landscaping, hospitality and food service. But the meatpacking industry has [started to hire more and more workers](https://www.investigatemidwest.org/in-bankruptcys-wake-a-minnesota-meatpacking-plants-visa-workers-face-an-uncertain-future/) through the program, according to U.S. Department of Labor data.

The H-2B’s sister program, the H-2A visa, is reserved for seasonal agriculture work, such as picking fruits and vegetables. Some agricultural industries, such as meatpacking plants and dairy farms, are not eligible for the H-2A visa because the work is year-round.

In 2015, just six meatpacking plants were granted H-2B visas by the federal government. Last year, the number was 44 — a six-fold increase.

Tyson Foods and Smithfield Foods, two of the largest meat processing companies in the U.S., hired workers through the H-2B program last year, according to the latest data available. [Seaboard Foods](https://www.investigatemidwest.org/meatpacking-plants-have-long-relied-on-immigrant-labor-now-some-are-turning-to-foreign-workers/), which owns one of the largest meatpacking plants in the country and is based in Oklahoma, has used the program for several years, the data shows.

[![Made with Flourish](https://www.investigatemidwest.org/content/files/public-flourish-studio/resources/made_with_flourish.xml) ](https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/18971970/?utm%5Fsource=embed&utm%5Fcampaign=visualisation/18971970)