Some Amazon Warehouses are Losing Hundreds of Workers After Changes in Legal Status (seattletimes.com)
- Reference: 0178371200
- News link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/07/13/2345250/some-amazon-warehouses-are-losing-hundreds-of-workers-after-changes-in-legal-status
- Source link: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/trumps-purge-of-foreign-workers-arrives-at-amazons-warehouses/
"They are among thousands of foreign workers across the country who have been swept up in a quiet purge, pushed out of jobs in places where their labor was in high demand and at times won high praise."
> While raids to nab workers in the country without legal permission in fields and Home Depot parking lots have grabbed attention, the job dismissals at the Amazon warehouse are part of the Trump administration's effort to thin the ranks of immigrants who had legal authorization to work... Such dismissals are happening at many of Amazon's more than 1,000 facilities around the country, including in Massachusetts and the warehouse in Staten Island that fills orders for millions of New Yorkers. At one fulfillment center in Florida, hundreds were let go, a person familiar with the site said... "We're supporting employees impacted by the government's recent changes in immigration policy," Richard Rocha, an Amazon spokesperson, said in a statement. The company has pointed workers to various resources, including outside free or low-cost legal services...
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> The dismissals came with remarkable speed. On May 30, the Supreme Court granted temporary approval for the Trump administration to revoke a program known as "humanitarian parole," which had allowed more than 500,000 migrants feeling political turmoil in Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to quickly get work permits if they had a fiscal sponsor... On June 12, the Department of Homeland Security said it had begun notifying enrollees that the program was ending, saying the immigrants had been poorly vetted and undercut American workers...
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> On June 22, Amazon told managers around the country in an email, which was obtained by The New York Times, that it had "received the first list from D.H.S. identifying impacted Amazon employees" from the parole program, as well as "some employees outside of this specific program whose work authorization is similarly affected." Amazon let the managers know that the next day, the affected workers would receive push notifications in the employee app about the change. Unless the workers could provide alternate work authorization documents in the next five days, they would be suspended without pay and ultimately dismissed.
[1] https://www.seattletimes.com/business/trumps-purge-of-foreign-workers-arrives-at-amazons-warehouses/
Workaround? (Score:3)
Amazon should reclassify their warehouses as package farms and their employees as package pickers -- might? help?. /s
(Trump said he'll exclude farm workers from ICE raids... then Stephen Miller (guy who *wishes* he was Voldemort) said they wouldn't... then ...)
Re: (Score:1)
They had "work permits" or "humanitarian parole" or whatever.
They just got their permits revoked.
So, nothing to do with ICE raids.
Re:Workaround? (Score:5, Insightful)
Their immigration status just went from legal to illegal as a direct result of this policy change. Now that these people are considered illegal immigrants, and jobless at that, do you really think that ICE is just going to stand around and not pursue them? ICE is already having trouble meeting their quotas and now they have a ton of new people to target.
Re: (Score:2)
Stephen Miller wants them arresting 3,000 people a day when they're barely doing that in a month. It's why they keep pulling actual US citizens off the streets.
Seriously if you have a tan you could easily find yourself locked up for two or three weeks. Let alone if you are actually Latino or Hispanic. And they could care less if you are a US citizen.
Also the whole thing is really there to get us used to having a heavily militarized police just kind of walking around. We are gradually being condition
Morons (Score:5, Insightful)
Between firing hard workers and the stupid tariff insanity, Trump is trying really hard to crash the US economy.
And I'm not even talking about the science or health or anything else that Trump touches.
They are rounding up non-citizen, but don't worry citizens, they're trying hard to come for you too, are you really a citizen ? Do you deserve to be a citizen, especially if you are being unpatriotic in calling out the lack of clothes on the emperor ? Does it even matter if you are a citizen if you are kidnapped and wake up in a foreign gulag with no access to help ? Do you have tattoos, you must a in a gang, which are conveniently considered terrorists, so you have no right, enjoy.
America Land of the Stupid.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Seems to be the Elon approach. Wreck then you can control it, what he learned with twitter. Then used that idea for the govt cuts to keep the govt away from Tesla. Trump wants far more ICE, which will be his SS. Look how they can just yank anyone off the street. Concerned there will come a point they are yanking native born citizens because they don't like them for whatever reason
Re: Morons (Score:4, Interesting)
Let me ask you this; if Trump were a Russian asset, would he be doing anything differently?
Re: (Score:2)
> Do you deserve to be a citizen, especially if you are being unpatriotic in calling out the lack of clothes on the emperor?
Or simple be someone he doesn't like ... [1]Trump says he’s considering revoking Rosie O’Donnell’s citizenship [cnn.com] -- noting that she was born in New York, and her parents were U.S. citizens. I mean, *maybe* he thinks saying mean things about him could be considered "treason" (a reason born citizenship could be revoked) but I doubt that would fly even with this SCOTUS.
[1] https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/12/politics/rosie-odonnell-donald-trump
Re:So long slashdot (Score:4, Funny)
That troll would be more effective with a low uid...
The Slope Keeps Getting More Slippery (Score:5, Insightful)
So did they finish rounding up all of the immigrant criminals and gang members or did they just completely lose focus on them to chase quotas? Trump isn't shy about celebrating accomplishments and I haven't heard anything about all of the criminals being caught, so I'm assuming it's the latter. And in this case, these people were here legally but Trump altered the deal, which changed their status to illegal.
Every dictator-wannabe needs a group of people to vilify and subjugate so that they can normalize the terrible treatment of a specific group of people. Once that is normalized, they can shift that behavior to their ideological opponents and begin suppressing opposition. It's so weird watching this in real-time and seeing people who are either willfully ignorant or actually support dictatorship (since it's their guy).
Re: (Score:3)
Apparently only 6% of undocumented convicted murderers have been detained. Too much work or too dangerous for the cowards.
Re: (Score:2)
> So did they finish rounding up all of the immigrant criminals and gang members or did they just completely lose focus on them to chase quotas?
That was *never* the actual goal, especially with Stephen Miller's 3,000/day quota. He wants *all* undocumented people out -- even those doing work no one else wants, like farm work ( [1]US agriculture secretary says Medicaid recipients can replace deported farm workers [theguardian.com]) -- and everyone with temporary permission out (hence all the legal-status revocations), and ... -- let's just say everyone who's brown. Trump's just along for the golf-cart ride at this point.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/09/trump-agriculture-medicaid-migrant-farm-workers
Re: (Score:2)
That is the propaganda, but I have yet to be given any examples. Same with the "fraud, waste, and abuse" found in the Government Civil Servants that were fired.
Re: (Score:2)
> That is the propaganda, but I have yet to be given any examples. Same with the "fraud, waste, and abuse" found in the Government Civil Servants that were fired.
Actual proof is too little and hard to come by and MAGA followers really don't care anyway; the narrative fits their beliefs -- that, of course, have been fed to them. Sad that the "think for yourself, do your own research" crowd does little of either, because it probably would turn up evidence contrary to what they want to believe.
Re: (Score:1)
> There will be a LOT of able bodied people being TAKEN OFF medicad that will be needing jobs!
> If someone has a mental/physical disability, that is one thing, but there are a TON of people on
> medicad, that have been scamming the system!
I have a physical disability. The social security administration even says so. I can't work anymore.
But I can't get "govt healthcare", so cry me a river about those who had it and lost because of change in their "legal status".
While I feel sympathy for the workers, (Score:3)
My response to the effect on my own country is “shrug. cause and effect will play out one way or the other”. If Amazon can easily replace them with US citizens or automate the jobs away, then we never really needed them in the first place. However, the MUCH more likely outcome is that these people are NOT easy to replace, and Amazon’s business will suffer. This will degrade the quality of their service and affect their profits, reducing their stock price. Which will affect anyone who buys from Amazon or has exposure to Amazon stock, which is probably pretty much anyone with a retirement fund.
Additionally, most immigrants pay more $ in taxes than they consume in services, despite what conservatives say. So, every 1000 legal immigrants that we kick out causes our economy to tick down. Aka we get poorer and weaker as a country.
A few thousand workers is a drop in the bucket. If the number climbs into the millions, we’ll feel it economically. Basically, everything we do as a country rests on our economy. If we choose to ignore it, it’ll hurt.
Re:While I feel sympathy for the workers, (Score:5, Interesting)
The thinking is that "somebody else" is the cause of America's "problems". I agree with you that immigrants are a net asset. They also commit less crime than 3rd generation Americans, but they are today's scapegoat. My guess is that Amazon will automate the jobs away, and there may be longer delivery times for awhile. MAGAs will find another "somebody else" to blame if their living situations don't radically improve. I can probably list them in order... they are predictable.
I am shocked (Score:2)
I am shocked that a company run by an oligarch would employ people whose immigration status is precarious. I am truly gobsmacked that such a company would think to make use of such an imbalance of power to keep its employees under its thumb.
I can't wait for the unionization of Amazon warehouses, which surely will come any day now now that they're forced to hire Americans who know their rights...
Bwahahahaaaa.....
Re: (Score:1)
There's YT videos saying effectively the same thing. Not that blacks will. All of them can go out of business, and big ag can buy them up.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
So... you made an account on another website because you couldn't harass him successfully...?
Have you considered that you hate yourself, and it's probably for some obvious reason like you're trans and scared of admitting it to yourself or something like that?
We're all very sorry that life isn't how they said it would be in the cartoons. We're all disappointed by that.
Re: (Score:2)
I wouldn't be surprised if we'll see a name change in a few years, USA becomes United Republican States of America.
Re: Trump has expanded the high skill work visas (Score:3)
There's a step inbetween. Fascists are incompentent and disloyal. When on fascist regime secures power, another faction is planning a violent takeover. Thst's just how these guys are. When it is time to hand the keys to the country over to J.D. Vance, someone close to Trump is going to be like: "No! It's MY time. I am the one that DESERVES to rule."
After a cycle of lunatics off each other, and America is in tatters. Then maybe some of my family members will agree that we shouldn't have put these dopes in po
Re:Trump has expanded the high skill work visas (Score:5, Informative)
H1B hasn't changed. I don't know what you mean by "Trump has expanded the high skill work visas". He hasn't.
Re: (Score:2)
Do you have a reference for that? All I've seen is visas for the ultra-rich.
Besides, since trump has been happy to cancel student and work visas for people who say things he doesn't like, more visas would not help.
Re:Trump has expanded the high skill work visas (Score:5, Informative)
Are you not living in the same world as me? Trump [1]tried really hard [wikipedia.org] to stage a coup and remain in power through illegal means. The fact that he failed doesn't mean he didn't try. More shocking, the Republicans in congress shielded him from any legal consequences for his criminal behavior, leaving him free to try again.
Since he tried last time, do you have any reason to think he won't try again this time?
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_6_United_States_Capitol_attack
Re: (Score:2)
Add to that he's still talking about how the 2020 election was stolen. I see no evidence he will walk away peacefully at the end of this term. He's looking more and more like Putin all the time, as he has started to use the DOJ to prosecute his political opponents, often for simply doing their jobs. He hasn't resorted to pushing people off of balconies yet. He pardoned all the Jan 6 insurrectionists, and they are now waiting for his command. But most troubling, he has a complete disregard for the constit
Sane washing (Score:4, Informative)
It's entirely possible the person you're replying to really isn't living in the same world as you. There's a phenomenon from last year called sane washing where the entire news media protects Donald Trump and the Republican party at all costs and anyone who threatens them gets fired immediately.
I watched dozens of journalists fired last year for trying to call Donald Trump to task on the things he's said and done
Re: (Score:1)
Pretty funny you think someone actually tried to stage any kind of coup with an unarmed crowd...
Unlike, say, ICE protestors.
Re:Trump has expanded the high skill work visas (Score:4, Interesting)
H1B visa requirements should raise the minimum amount of pay to $500k a year. Currently it is a minimum of $60k with a difference in cost of living. This is why you see a lot of H1B workers in lower CoL areas.
If you can't find a person in the United States that can do a job then the non-American person(s) taking that work must be top-talent and/or have skills nobody possesses.
Re: (Score:2)
Great idea... and that'll offset everything so much that everything has to go up in price.
How about the unemployed American's get those jobs? Is that such a bad thing?
Oh, wait... I can go back to school and get in tons of debt (even though my credit is crap because I've never done anything with it, and no bank this side of the universe would even talk to me about school loans), of course, after I decide on what I should spend the the rest of my life doing before "AI" takes that whole job class over... oh,
Re: (Score:2)
> We are rounding up a whole bunch of Mexicans and Hispanics
We actually are not. Trump's ICE raids might look tough to some, but the number of deported people hasn't significantly increased. There are about 15k deportations per month, and at this rate it'll take a _decade_ to make a dent in the overall illegal immigrant population.
Re: (Score:2)
No, the H1-B program has not changed this year under Trump. The number of new visas issued annually remains capped at 65,000, plus an additional 20,000 for people with a masterâ(TM)s degree or higher.
Under Trump's first term, there was increased scrutiny and stricter enforcement on H1-B, leading to higher denial rates (24% vs. 6%) and more requests for evidence. Much of that was overturned in the courts, and the denial rate is back to normal.
Prior to 2004, H1-B numbers were legislatively higher (195,00
Re: (Score:3)
There is still a LEGAL temporary guest worker program. Folks are also free to jump through the hoops to enter the country legally. I think a lot of people have zero issue with immigrants as a whole, but are sick and tired of the free-for-all at the border. In most countries, if you hop the border and get caught, you wind up in jail and then get deported.
Re: (Score:1)
YOU should probably try reading the summary, they were not here legally, but were given forbearance because of supposed hardships where they came from - but no one really vetted the claims they made. They could still apply for legal immigration.
Re: (Score:2)
Here "legally", according to who... their "Advocate" who helped fill out all the paperwork to look as legal as possible?