Louisville Meets Trump’s Deportation Threats With Solidarity
In March, the Trump administration revoked the legal status of 532,000 Latin American immigrants here under the “humanitarian parole” system. Affected workers in Louisville, Kentucky, have seen an outpouring of support from the local labor movement.
United Auto Workers members picket outside a Ford plant in the early morning hours of October 14, 2023, in Louisville, Kentucky. (Michael Swensen / Getty Images)
Two hundred union workers, out of 5,700 who assemble dishwashers, refrigerators, washers, and dryers for GE Appliances–Haier at Appliance Park in Louisville, Kentucky, received notice last month that the Trump administration is revoking their work authorizations.
The immigrant workers from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Venezuela have received a mixed reaction to their imminent deportation — hostility from some coworkers and an outpouring of support from their union and the local labor movement. They’re part of the Communications Workers’ industrial division, IUE-CWA Local 83761.
They’re in the United States on “humanitarian parole,” a program that the government until now has used to provide visas to people fleeing war or political instability in certain countries.
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