United States immigration agents fanned out across southwest Kansas this week, a region with a large concentration of feedlots and slaughterhouses, and the effect on the meat industry was immediate, according to Reuters, in a text republished by MarketScreener. The prospect of arrest kept much of the largely immigrant workforce away, forcing beef processing plants to slow down and backing up cattle.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimated that 90,000 cattle were slaughtered on Thursday, down 16% from a week earlier. Cattlemen’s associations say the immigration operations are having a chilling effect on documented workers and will push up the price of beef.