Representative Feenstra from our District 4 has begun to raise corporate money so he can run for governor. His platform is to support Trump.

He is especially proud of Trump’s war on immigrants. We don’t have a border law or a guest worker program for all the farm workers that Iowa needs.

JBS announced this week a “historic” contract for workers in their meat processing plant in Marshalltown, among others. I think we can assume that the contract is “historic” to replace immigrant workers that have fled. The salary increase for JBS workers will be passed on to the consumer.

Iowa’s economic growth ranks second to the last among all the states, and Iowa’s economy continues to shrink. Feenstra and Trump want more tax breaks for the rich, but Iowa State Economics’ Professor Peter Orazem says taxes are not the answer. He states that a shortage of labor is the reason for Iowa’s growth lagging behind the national average. Businesses are facing difficulties in securing employees. Since approximately 2021, Iowa has experienced stagnation in economic growth while all but Iowa and South Dakota grew faster.

Again, an agricultural state needs immigrant labor. Instead of more tax breaks for billionaires, we need an immigration law that works…like the bipartisan one that the Senate wrote and Speaker Johnson hid so Trump could campaign on the border. The history of wealth and racism is deeply intertwined.