Deportation Order Could Affect Local Business, OISD
A directive announced last week by U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem may have a serious effect on Olney’s workforce and school attendance figures.
The order encourages Venezuelans in the United States to return home following the U.S. operation on Jan. 3 that ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and warns that those who do not may face deportation. For Tower Extrusion, a major Olney employer, the policy raises immediate questions about workforce stability. For the Olney Independent School District, it adds a layer of uncertainty to enrollment and funding at a time when federal immigration enforcement is increasingly visible around town.
Tower President Mark McClelland said the impact will depend on each employee’s immigration status, emphasizing that the company’s Venezuelan workers are in the United States legally.
“There are many different types of visa/asylum status categories for Venezuelan and other immigrants so it is a case by case situation,” Mr. McClelland said. “If anyone solely had just a TPS status, they were required to leave some time ago.”
Mr. McClelland said Tower’s Venezuelan employees came to Olney on amnesty visas after the company struggled to find U.S. workers to fill jobs at its plant. He described the current moment as one of waiting and watching.
“I think most of them are under a wait-and-see posture and all of our Venezuelan employees have a legal asylum status,” he said in an email. “If a democratic government was reinstated in Venezuela (which we all hope happens) then they will have a decision to make if allowed. I know that many of them have established a new life here and would like to stay, and I am sure that many would want to go back home.”
The stakes for Tower — and for Olney — are high. Mr. McClelland said losing the Venezuelan workforce would create an immediate labor shortage the local community is unlikely to fill.
“If all of the Venezuelans we currently employ were forced to leave tomorrow then we are in a tough situation,” he said. “We just don’t have the personnel in Olney to replace them so we would likely be forced to move some of our manufacturing in Olney to one of our other locations.”
At OISD, Superintendent Matt Caffey said the district has not yet seen a drop in enrollment tied to immigration enforcement actions.
“I know that ICE has made some arrests around town, but there has been no communication or coordination with the school district,” Dr. Caffey said. “I wish I knew but I have no idea what to expect.”
Dr. Caffey said at least one parent of an OISD student has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. While immigration agents have conducted operations near schools in other parts of the country, he said there have been no raids at or near OISD campuses and no directives from state or federal authorities.
The uncertainty matters financially. OISD is funded largely by average daily attendance, meaning even small enrollment declines can ripple through budgets.
Nationally, the policy shift follows the termination of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans, which had allowed hundreds of thousands to live and work legally in the United States. A TPS designation in 2023 covered about 348,000 Venezuelans before it was ended in April, while an earlier 2021 designation for roughly 268,000 Venezuelans was terminated in November.
Secretary Noem said Sunday that Venezuela is “more free today than it was yesterday,” and that TPS holders can apply for refugee status. However, asylum applications are currently paused under a December policy memo from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Venezuela remains on the administration’s travel ban list, complicating any path forward.