Nebraska Governor Pillen supports ICE crackdown despite family business employing undocumented workers

Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen has aligned himself with President Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda, despite his family’s multimillion-dollar hog enterprise having employed undocumented workers for over a decade.

Investigations by The New York Times and the Flatwater Free Press found that Pillen Family Farms, one of the nation’s largest hog producers, has utilized undocumented laborers as it expanded. Court records and interviews with over 40 individuals indicate that at least 20 Pillen hog farms employed undocumented immigrants, with at least a dozen workers charged with using fake or stolen IDs for employment between 2015 and 2024.

Since President Trump’s return to the White House, Governor Pillen has directed the Nebraska State Patrol to partner with ICE on immigration enforcement. He also authorized the use of a former state prison, known as the ‘Cornhusker Clink’, to hold hundreds of detainees during federal mass deportation sweeps.