Trump immigration policy spurs ire at Kentucky Derby: 'We can't find workers'

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian News


Horse owners and trainers have voiced fury amid a reported shortage of workers, as immigrants fear deportation and activists take a stand

Mike Elk in Louisville, Kentucky
Saturday 6 May 2017 07.00 EDT


A dark cloud has been hanging over the Kentucky Derby this weekend as horse trainers have made public their anger at Trump’s immigration policies, which they say are hurting the Kentucky Derby, the US’s most glamorous horse racing event.

“We can’t find workers this year – it’s been tough,” says Julio Rubio of the Kentucky Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association. “Most of the workers we have at the track won’t even leave to go out at night to buy groceries because they are so scared of being deported.”

The horse racing industry is big business in Kentucky. It brings more than $4bn a year to the state. The owners of horses at Churchill Downs racetrack are among the country’s economic elite; derby winners can bring in purses that easily exceed $1m.

But the race, and the work of the wider industry, rest largely on the backs of an immigrant workforce making on average $400-$600 a week as well as free lodging in a huge dormitory inside the Churchill Downs complex. The skilled work typically requires a regular crew of guest workers, who live in Mexico in the offseason. However, as a result of Trump’s immigration crackdown, many horse workers were unable to make the trek to Churchill Downs this year.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/06/kentucky-derby-workers-trump-immigration-deportation

[yardwork]

1. Kentucky voted for Trump by a huge margin.

[Demit]

5. Perfect example of As ye sow, so shall ye reap.

Gradually, they're all finding out.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. (R) 62.5% - (D) 32.7%

https://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/kentucky

C'est la vie.

[yardwork]

11. Thanks for looking that up. I was too lazy.

[iluvtennis]

14. As someone said above, you reap what you sow...you voted for him, live with it

[Kittycow]

27. Thems the breaks!

[JI7]

2. maybe they will be forced to end it

[2naSalit]

3. ...

[Achilleaze]

4. Thanks a pantload, Comrade Casino* (R)

You and your republican cronies really have a way when it comes to screwing over people and planet.

This is yet another FAIL that Americans will be blaming on you and your thieving Cabal of republican Comrade-Cronies.

* republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief

[perdita9]

6. Time for Horse Owners to pay a decent salary

There are people who would work at the track, but the pay is terrible and the working conditions worse

[Yo_Mama]

25. Thank you. This is the least successful indictment of Trump's policies I have ever seen.

If things are so wonderful for workers at the track, then send a bus to Ferguson and offer employment to some of the young people there who have no work, no hope, and no prospects. Or Detroit. Anyone who thinks a lot of those kids wouldn't jump at the chance to work for a few months and earn thousands of dollars they could then use for college later is just a bigot.

A lot of people like to work with horses. They are seeking people who will work 60-70 hours a week for very little pay.

I'm not going to cry for a lot of very rich people who want very cheap labor. This is a symptom of what's wrong with our country rather than what's wrong with Trump.

The chutzpah here is astounding. There would be no problem with getting the workers from Mexico if they were legally working, and if they're not, then the employers here are knowingly flouting the law. Is this really a time to be publicly admitting that? I hope the Trump administration swoops in and investigates these people.

Before we had the import-your-cheap-workers-by-the-gross policy (with the corresponding and-throw-them-out-to-die-if-they-are-hurt policy), employers did have to seek people in the country, and they did have to pay somewhat better. But life was better for us all because of it.

I am sick of those who are conniving at a policy that basically seeks to reduce many laborers to a serf-like condition. SICK OF IT. I am old enough to remember when labor was respected and people realized that janitors and so forth were human beings who also had to live.

[nycbos]

7. You get what you pay for

[Bernardo de La Paz]

9. Aww, poor little rich folk. Go clean out the stables yourself or pay enough bucks.

How many of them voted for tRump and/or RepubliCONs? Didn't think it through?

[Historic NY]

10. Rich mans sport, let them pay...

[lunasun]

12. At a large race track around here the " free lodging " looks worse than the horse lodging

They treat these desperate people like work animals as they count the profits from the bets
$400 is a lot but long hard work and dirty conditions . Maybe the head experienced jeffe makes $600

[pangaia]

16. $400 i... a lot?? Oh.. really?

I don't think so..

[lunasun]

17. some will think oh 400 that is $10 an hour at a 40 hr week job +'housing but it is not for 40 hrs

Dawn dusk in summer seasons , heat, labor and shit
and the housing is horse stall like .

[dixiegrrrrl]

24. How are "guest workers" taxed?

If they are taxed and pay deductibles, which generally takes over 30% of a wage period, do they pay into Medicare,/Soc. Sec/workman's comp?
Do they file taxes and get refunds?
or are the track owners just taking the money out, but not booking it?

Lots of ways to look at the issue.

[Yo_Mama]

26. Thank you. The attitude being expressed in the article is just disgusting.

Believe me, you would find Americans to do these jobs if the conditions were better and the pay reflected any reasonable compensation for what is asked.

This is just a lot of rich people who are sorry they no longer live in medieval times exploiting a lot of stupid, uncaring liberals.

It's time to understand a few things in this country. It's time to understand what has been done to this country's workers. It's time to rebel against it.

[montana_hazeleyes]

13. As I looked at those wealthy people in their finery

and their " not a care in the world" excessive partying, I just couldn't stand them. This, right after the vote to put the poor and middle classes in more hurt and pain and loss.

I don't want to put them all in the same bag, but I said rich trump voters, life's good for you isn't it?

And when they used the immigrant workers up, they wouldn't give a damn what happens to them.
I'm sorry, I can't explain it, but I found it disgusting.

[spiderpig]

18. This.

We were watching the race (I know it's considered abuse by many people, but those animals are magnificent) and contrasted the elegance of the horses to the people parading around in stupid hats just dying to be seen.

I was commenting to Mr. pig that only women seemed compelled to wear stupid hats, and then a man magically appeared in a pink confection.

Yeah, I know about Ascot - what is it? Adult trick-or-treat?

[pangaia]

15. Oh, those poor, poor snowflake horse owners.

Whatever will they do for their little racie, racie.....

[AgadorSparticus]

19. Kentucky has 5.8% unemployment rate. Now all the home grown

Crybabies of immigration have PLENTY of jobs to themselves. They need to go pick themselves up by the bootstraps and go to work now.


https://www.google.com/search?q=unemployment+rate+by+state&prmd=nisv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi7iKKfld3TAhXnqlQKHYM_DIAQ_AUICigC&biw=360&bih=560#tbm=isch&q=unemployment+rate+by+state+2016&imgrc=CDlAjHoRk3Kg1M:

[llmart]

20. Why aren't all those Trump voters...

applying for these jobs? Aren't they always crying about how the immigrants are taking all their jobs from them?

To hell with these ignorant and gullible idiots. Next time if you aren't smart enough to know what you're voting for, please stay home from the polls and let the ones of us who have done our research make the decisions about who should run our country. These idiots keep installing McTurtle in office also. Maybe they ought to take a good long look at their educational systems too.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

21. This just sucks the joy out of being a multimillionaire racehorse owner. nt

[Sunlei]

22. all your 'workers', the best 'freemen', work at 'other tracks'

My friend hard at work starting the new colts

[Bayard]

23. Sigh....

I am not rich by any stretch of the imagination, but I live in Kentucky, I am from Kentucky, I have horses, and I did NOT vote for Trump. But I'm sure the nay-sayers here aren't talking about people like me, right?

I've known plenty of Hispanic folks that work at stables. They are usually damn glad to have those jobs. In their book, its decent money, often free housing even if it stinks, and it beats picking fruit in 100 degree heat. They get these jobs because your average white guy doesn't want them.

The Derby is a huge tradition here that hasn't changed much in 147 years. Appeals to rich and poor alike, and they all pile into Churchill Downs. I've known many horses off the track that went on to careers in dressage, jumping, and eventing. It's a source for nice, reasonably priced horses that many people would not be able to afford otherwise. Unfortunately, they can also still be shipped to Mexico or Canada for export to the meat market (the last U.S. slaughterhouse closed 10 years ago). But that also happens to many other breeds besides Thoroughbreds. A number of years ago there was a real scare with horses being stolen to be sold by the pound. As long as Europeans will buy it, they'll keep selling it.

One of my main gripes about horse racing is how young they are started. Two year olds are just babies, no matter how beautiful and muscled up they look on TV. Horses don't really mature physically until they are five, sometimes six.

So I guess you'd say I have mixed feelings.

[Freethinker65]

28. Good

[get the red out]

29. I wondered when this would happen

The horse industry should work to get people elected that won't deport workers. I live just down the road from Keeneland here in Lexington, KY, and I have been wondering when the state's most beloved business would be feeling the hurt from the Trump deportations.