(Des Moines, Iowa) – U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn said at a press conference Wednesday he was working with JBS USA and Iowa communities following the revocation of visas from about 200 employees at the JBS plant in Ottumwa. As previously reported, in mid July, Ottumwa’s mayor notified city council members that about 200 employees at a JBS USA meatpacking plant there had been informed their work visas were revoked, according to the Des Moines Register. The affected workers were from Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in May that the Trump administration could remove Biden-era deportation protections from nationals from these countries.

The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports Nunn said Wednesday these workers had “extended beyond their time in country” and that JBS could no longer legally employ them. “The good news is we’re working with JBS,” Nunn said. “We work very closely to make sure that there is no slowdown in production, either for the sellers who are taking their meat to market, or for the buyers.”

U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn speaks at a press conference in Des Moines on July 30, 2025. (Photo by Cami Koons/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

He said this immigration crackdown from the current administration was a way of “right sizing” the Biden administration’s immigration policy. Nunn said the president and relevant members of his cabinet are all “on board” with fixing the visa programs so that ag workers, students, nurses and more “get the opportunity to stay here.”

During his visit to Iowa, President Donald Trump said he wanted to find a way for farmers to vouch for some workers who were not in the country legally. Gov. Kim Reynolds expressed interest in working with the administration on this front, but details have not yet been revealed. Nunn said he was working with community members in Perry, where JBS recently announced a new sausage making facility, about similar concerns.