Why our journalists went to Mexico to cover a Minnesota pork plant closure

Plus: Did Team USA snub Caitlin Clark? [Plus: Did Team USA snub Caitlin Clark?] View this email as a [web page]( [Star Tribune]( [Essential Minnesota logo] ESSENTIAL MINNESOTA [Essential Minnesota logo] ESSENTIAL MINNESOTA Good morning, Minnesota! I treated myself to a German lager after a pleasant bike ride last night and, hours later, I swim in reverie 🍻 On to the news 📢 [Eder Campuzano] By Eder Campuzano TODAY’S TOP STORIES - [North Shore residents oppose proposed Black-owned wellness sanctuary]( - [Why is country music cool again?]( - [Did the Minnesota Department of Education do enough to prevent Feeding Our Future Fraud? Legislative auditor report due out today]( - [Weather service probing if tornado touched down in northern Minnesota]( - [Minneapolis Chief O'Hara says shooting of man Wednesday by police was "justifiable and lawful"](   'These are choices you and I don't really have to make': Why our journalists traveled to Mexico to cover the closure of a Minnesota pork plant Liz Flores/Star Tribune The closure of a pork plant in a southwest Minnesota town last year presented hundreds of guest workers with a distressing choose-your-own adventure scenario: Stay in the U.S. illegally, gain a new visa or temporary legal status, or return to Mexico. Star Tribune reporter Chris Vondracek and photographer Liz Flores followed the closure as it unfolded and scattered employees to the wind. As the one-year anniversary of the HyLife plant’s closure approached, Chris and Liz began wondering: What happened to the American dream these workers were chasing? [image] Liz Flores/Star Tribune What they found paints an intricate picture of the nuances of U.S. immigration policy and what happens when an employer fails to keep its promises. "One of the biggest issues that I witnessed while working on this story was that of the separation of families and how these workers would navigate being away from their loved ones, especially their children," Liz said. That aspect of the series also struck Business Team Leader Kristen Painter, who edited the series. As a mother, she felt for the families who sent their children north in search of livable wages and a better future. “Those are choices you and I don’t really have to make,” she said. The three-part series on the plight of former HyLife plant workers published this morning on StarTribune.com and will anchor the front page of Sunday’s newspaper. The stories are linked below in English and Spanish. Many of the HyLife workers on H-2B visas were guaranteed more than two years of work; the plant’s closure imperiled their livelihood. “It kind of put them in this weird limbo between two worlds,” Kristen said. “And the federal policy on it is as clear as mud.” Reporting projects that require extensive travel — and the mountain of expense reports that entails — typically prompt reporters and their editors to carefully craft arguments reminiscent of a worthy “Shark Tank” pitch to Mark Cuban. Many such projects start with a well-researched hunch and a stack of data files, along with a Rolodex full of potential sources. Not this one. Chris and Liz had made so many connections over the course of their initial reporting on the HyLife closure that pitching the story was a light lift. In fact, it was Kristen and Assistant Managing Editor for Business Courtnay Kim’s idea to have the two travel to Mexico and document the plant closure’s impact on the small city of Salvatierra. “These sort of initiatives, they take a lot of resources and they take a lot of buy-in within the room,” said Kristen, who grew up in Blue Earth. “It’s very easy to have the policy without the people. And we had the people right away.” The long tail of the story that began with the HyLife closure intersected with various aspects of the project team’s backgrounds. Chris and Kristen grew up miles apart from each other — she was a track-and-field star for a rival high school. Chris' mother was Kristen's high school English teacher. Liz is one of the newsroom’s foremost proponents of more coverage of Minnesota’s Latino communities. Her cultural knowledge, Chris and Kristen said, was essential in identifying sources and planning what could be a treacherous trip to Salvatierra. “Liz was key and crucial for this,” Kristen said. The city, in the Mexican state of Guanajuato, was the site of the massacre of 11 young people last Christmas. Gangs are a persistent problem for the police force, which has recently been placed under control of the federal government. The reporting trip required Star Tribune editors to draw up several emergency protocols. The company hired a driver for Chris and Liz who previously worked in law enforcement. Kristen required Chris to keep the GPS tracking activated on his phone and held regular phone calls to ensure he and Liz were safe. They were also limited to one day of reporting in Salvatierra. “There was concern that two American journalists coming in on two consecutive days may be targeted,” Kristen said. The work spanned countless on- and off-the-record interviews with local and federal officials in the U.S. and Mexico. There were times that Chris would speak with Department of Labor officials who would tell him they couldn’t even acknowledge his questions, let alone answer them. And through it all, the project team maintained its focus on the people at the center of the story whose lives were upended when their employer went bankrupt. “These are lives that often were not being given the full dignity of legal protection or worker protections,” Chris said. “Telling this story in a way that’s more familiar with those places shows readers the vibrancy of the workforce in rural America.” Is there a Star Tribune reporter or coverage area you'd like us to go in-depth with? Send suggestions to essential@startribune.com. And follow our behind-the-scenes account on Instagram: [@btstartribune](. Related coverage - [They kept this Minnesota slaughterhouse running. 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MORE FROM THE STAR TRIBUNE - [Minnesota spring wild turkey hunting is record-setting]( - [The new answer for empty Twin Cities stores? Asian grocers and market destinations]( WAS CAITLIN CLARK SNUBBED? Andy Lyons/Getty Images Caitlin Clark is making headlines again. This time, the record-setting Iowa standout and Indiana Fever guard is in the conversation over her omission from the roster on the U.S. women's national team for the 2024 Olympics in France. Our columnist Patrick Reusse argues that it's no snub. While Clark has proven herself on the court against collegiate opponents and heralded an unprecedented surge of attention to women's sports, Reusse says, the roster brims with worthy players. The Star Tribune editorial board, on the other hand, argues that Clark's fame shouldn't be dismissed in the case for her inclusion. (A colleague also recently asked: Would you have kept LeBron James off the men's team in 2004?) What do you think? Email us at essential@startribune.com. One note: The Star Tribune editorial board is wholly separate and independent from the newsroom, and the two entities do not influence each others' content. IN OTHER NEWS - [GOP-endorsed U.S. Senate candidate confuses up drinking fountains for crime in map mix-up]( - Minnesota Reformer - [Minnesota immigrant advocates condemn Biden's new asylum policy]( - MinnPost - ["It can be hard to find folks who look like yourself": Meet the Minnesotans working to diversify the outdoors]( - Racket     THE MINNESOTA GOODBYE Today's stunning display of Minnesota scenery comes to us courtesy of Minneapolis-based photographer Matt Birkholz, who captured this radiant sunrise over the city skyline earlier in the week. His Instagram account, linked in the image above, is full of beautiful cityscapes — Birkholz has a knack for capturing the moon in various states among landmarks such as Capella Tower and the Hennepin Avenue Bridge. Thanks for reading Eder Campuzano, reporter David Taintor, editor [Email]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Manage email preferences]( • [Subscribe to Star Tribune]( • [Privacy Policy]([Unsubscribe from this newsletter]( [Unsubscribe from this newsletter]( [Manage]( your preferences | [Opt Out]( using TrueRemove™ Got this as a forward? [Sign up]( to receive our future emails. View this email [online](. 650 3rd Ave. S. Suite 1300 | Minneapolis, MN 55488 US This email was sent to {EMAIL}. To continue receiving our emails, add us to your address book.