Cattle ranchers from Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma say that ICE operations in their states are negatively affecting the agricultural community and driving up beef prices.
This comes as local officials say federal law enforcement activity has increased in their areas.
The Texas Cattle Feeders Association, Kansas Livestock Association and Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association put out a joint statement this week saying ICE operations are having a “massive chilling effect on the legal, documented, skilled workers that put beef on the table and keep the cattle supply chain moving.”
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The organizations said they’ve fielded reports from members about delays in shipping thousands of fed cattle to processors, “resulting in millions of dollars in lost revenue and additional costs,” and workforce disruptions at supply chain chokepoints, including feedyards, dairies, processors and transportation hubs.
“These types of disruptions will lead to higher beef prices for consumers,” they said.
Beef prices already rising
Beef costs have climbed steadily over the past several years. Prices in 2026 are 22% higher than they were in 2025. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the average price for a pound of ground beef in August 2026 was $7.16. That’s because while Americans want more beef, availability has dwindled.
The number of beef cows on American farms is at its lowest level since the 1950s, with farmers in many western states culling their herds because of persistent drought. Slower production by meat processors during the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t help matters.
President Donald Trump signed a proclamation in August allowing up to 300,000 metric tons of ground beef products to be imported without tariffs, but economists said this hasn’t lowered prices for consumers.
Farmers are facing a pile on of issues. The Iran War has put a strain on fuel and fertilizer prices, and tariffs are driving up the price of supplies.
With this being the case, ICE concerns “are a costly and unnecessary impact to cattle producers already suffering from unwelcome political interference to both the markets as well as the physical supply chain,” the cattle associations said in their statement.
“Frustratingly, the harm these actions cause to cattle producers last for days and weeks after such operations conclude,” they added.
Federal immigration crackdowns, and the fear that results from them, have been a recurring issue for farmers, especially with President Donald Trump’s push for deportations and detentions. Immigrants make up a large part of the agricultural community, with 70% of agricultural workers in the U.S. being from different countries.
When Straight Arrow reached out to DHS about the cattle associations’ statement on ICE operations, it pointed to a tweet by Markwayne Mullin, where the Homeland Security Secretary said ICE is not conducting worksite operations in Kansas. He did not mention in the tweet anything about worksite operations in Texas or Oklahoma. Straight Arrow did not immediately receive a response to a question about these states.
Even if there aren’t direct raids on worksites, there is still “fear and anxiety of being subject to the possibility of having immigration enforcement come to the farm,” Zachariah Rutledge, an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics at Michigan State University, previously told Straight Arrow.
This fear had been a concern back in the spring, when farmers worried about not having enough employees for their harvest season.
“It just causes a lot of stress, a lot of anxiety, a lot of fear, in a community and an industry that already is facing incredible pressures and incredible stressors,” Ben Tindall, executive director of Save Family Farming, said in April.
In a growing number of circumstances, the pressures become too much to bear. More and more farms nationwide have been facing bankruptcy, with some closing altogether.
ICE presence in Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma
Officials in Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma have reported seeing heightened immigration enforcement in recent weeks.
In Austin, Texas, local officials said ICE activity has sharply increased, with the mayor saying reports of detentions and stops went from a number that could be counted “on one hand” to roughly 30 in a matter of days.
Mayor Kirk Watson said this at a press conference addressing the shooting of a man, Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, by an ICE agent in Austin Sept. 20. Garcés Pérez was wounded and is now in detention. His lawyer said he remains in significant pain from a bullet still lodged in his back.
Just weeks earlier, an ICE agent fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during a traffic stop in Houston. DHS later said Salgado Araujo, a business owner, was not the agency’s intended target. Federal investigators cited the presence of two white vans at a residential address as their primary reason for pursuing him. Straight Arrow journalists who went to the corner of Canal Street and Wayside Drive, where Salgado Araujo was killed, counted 43 white vans pass by in two hours — an average of every 2 minutes and 47 seconds. Agents’ citing of a white van for their focus on Salgado Araujo, Harris County Commissioner Adrian Garcia said, amounts to “unconstitutional profiling.”
Two Republican Kansas senators, Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall, addressed the increased ICE presence in their state on X.
Moran said he stressed to Mullin the ” importance of DHS working with our local law enforcement to safely execute” warrants.
“I will remain engaged with federal and local authorities and community leaders,” Moran said.
Marshall wrote that ICE needs to coordinate with local law enforcement when operating in Kansas.
“Our sheriffs and police know these communities better than anyone, and working together keeps officers and residents safe,” Marshall said.
Local media outlet KCUR described a “widespread” ICE operation across southwest Kansas. It quoted the city of Liberal’s Vice Mayor Janeth Vazquez saying dozens of people have been detained since the enforcement operation began earlier this week. Residents and officials said to KCUR they think federal agents are breaking traffic laws and racially profiling U.S. citizens.
“We first became aware of the operation Monday night, and since then, unfortunately, our community has been living with tremendous fear, and a lot of people are just absolutely terrified to leave their home,” Vazquez said in an interview with KCUR.
Mullin, in his tweeted statement, maintained that ICE law enforcement “has conducted operations targeting heinous criminals” in Kansas.
Kathleen Alonso, an immigrant rights advocate for the organization New Frontiers, told KCUR that she contacted some of the families after their loved ones were recently detained.
“The family shared that they had no criminal records,” Alonso said.
DHS has previously countered that unauthorized immigrants broke the law when they either came into the country illegally or let their statuses expire.
Analyses of those arrested during operations in other states show that many did not have criminal records, either, and a majority didn’t have violent convictions.
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