VEBLEN, South Dakota — Behind the bleary eyes of workers streaming in and out of a dairy farm dormitory here in Kristi Noem’s state is a story of a booming industry, a broken immigration system and the tension facing the Trump administration as it attempts to forcibly remove 12 million undocumented immigrants.
Noem, who was governor from 2019 to 2025, helped boost the state’s thriving dairy farms that generate $7.2 billion a year — with a dairy cow population up 70 percent since she took office. But much of that growth wouldn’t have been possible without state and federal officials looking the other way at the legal status of the farm hands who pull the long shifts needed to keep the milk flowing.
Noem is now playing a major role in orchestrating President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans as Homeland Security secretary — putting her and her state squarely at the center of the long-simmering question that has now reached a boil. To deport all 12 million people, the Trump administration will have to conduct raids throughout the entire country, upending communities and disrupting economies in red states, where more than 40 percent of undocumented immigrants reside.
The politics will […]
One of the dirty little secrets which everyone in the industry knows but does not want to discuss is that we have built the food system on the backs of illegal labor. This policy stems from Nixon’s Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butts whose famous motto was “Get big or get out”. This use of illegal labor keeps prices artificially low, putting profit into the pockets of private corporations, while exploiting people who cannot defend themselves. This is done while the corporations involved only get a slap on the wrist when caught. If the law was actually enforced the penalties would be sufficient to dissuade evasion. But that is not the case, and it is another illustration of corporate executives being held to a different enforcement standard than mere mortals such as ourselves. Would enforcing the law raise prices? Absolutely! However, it would also cause a revision in the standards we use as part of our industrial food production system. Think outside the box.