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The Wall Street Journal published a lengthy report Wednesday morning, highlighting all the manufacturing jobs that are dependent on migrant workers, and claiming that deportations would have a “devastating” effect on the companies.
“Only Two Companies Make Parachutes for U.S. Troops. Deportations Would Crush One,” the WSJ report is titled. The report begins:
ASHEVILLE, N.C.—Inside two low-slung brick buildings nestled here in the Blue Ridge Mountains, dozens of employees churn out parachutes for U.S. soldiers.
Cutting and sewing the fabric is precise work with little margin for error. To make the main canopy for the MC-6, a parachute used mostly by the U.S. Army and Marines, takes 27 steps. One single skipped stitch, among thousands, is considered a major defect.
Many of the employees have worked at these sewing machines for years. About a quarter of the staff are immigrants living and working under temporary legal protections that have come under fire from the Trump administration. The Supreme Court on May 19 allowed the administration to strip such protections for about 350,000 Venezuelans living in the U.S.
John Oswald, the chief executive of Mills Manufacturing, has dozens of workers from Ukraine, Nicaragua and other countries who are at risk of losing their legal status. The 90-year-old business is one of just two companies left that are qualified to make the MC-6 and the T-11, the main personnel parachutes for the U.S. military.
“If we lose these workers, it would be devastating to our business,” Oswald laments.
Quoting the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, the WSJ explains that approximately 1.8 million migrants who entered the U.S. with temporary legal status are at risk of losing their deportation protections and work authorizations, many who entered the U.S. under the Biden administration’s ‘humanitarian parole’ program.
In addition to sewing parachutes for American troops, the migrants have been give jobs at companies like Amazon, GE Appliances and Marriott, and at smaller employers such as Eli’s Cheesecake in Chicago and Goodwin Living, an operator of senior-living communities in Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C.
At Mills Manufacturing, the parachute company, the migrants are making a very decent salary, along with multiple perks, including English classes. The WSJ writes:
For decades, Mills has hired a mix of U.S.-born and foreign-born workers to sew and cut for 10-hour shifts. Workers can earn up to $20 an hour, plus overtime, including bump-ups for mastering additional skills. Oswald pays employees bonuses totaling $500 when they refer a successful hire.
At Mills, a third of the workers are Latinos and another third have come from Eastern Europe. Signs are written in four languages: English, Spanish, Moldovan and Russian. A large group gathers each Friday for a two-hour English class.
The WSJ report quotes a Mexican-born production supervisor, who says she uses Google translate to speak with Moldovan, Russian and Ukrainian colleagues.
A 90-year-old U.S. military contractor in Asheville, N.C., could lose many of its immigrant employees under Trump’s plan to end their legal protections, part of a broader risk to the labor market https://t.co/iPaya50hi8
— WSJ Business News (@WSJbusiness) May 28, 2025
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