Cattle Industry Groups Say ICE Operations in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas Cut Fed-Cattle Slaughter Up to 16% in a Day

The Texas Cattle Feeders Association, Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association, and Kansas Livestock Association issued a joint statement around September 25, 2026 saying heightened ICE enforcement operations across the three states were causing employees to miss work at feedlots, dairy processors, feed and grain companies, and transportation hubs, delaying cattle shipments and costing the industry millions of dollars in lost revenue. The disruption was measurable in USDA’s own data: fed-cattle slaughter dropped roughly 9% on September 23 and nearly 16% on September 24. Several meatpacking plants in Dodge City, Liberal, and Garden City, Kansas — which together process thousands of cattle daily — temporarily shut down and sent cattle back to feedlots. The associations warned continued disruption could raise consumer beef prices, and Republican lawmakers from the affected states, including Sens. Roger Marshall (KS) and Jerry Moran (KS), publicly raised concerns about the enforcement operations’ economic impact.

No specific dollar total for the industry-wide loss was available in the reporting reviewed — the associations characterized the impact as “millions” without a precise figure. The episode is notable structurally: it is industry associations in reliably Republican states, not immigrant-rights groups, supplying the economic case against the administration’s enforcement posture, and Republican senators from those same states are the ones amplifying it publicly.