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Gov. Pillen backs ICE crackdown. His company employs undocumented workers.

Gov. Pillen backs ICE crackdown. His company employs undocumented workers.

YANQI XU Flatwater Free Press
Sep 10, 2026
Sep 10, 2026 Updated Sep 12, 2026
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10 min to read

PillenTruck COPYRIGHT RESTRICTED — A Pillen livestock truck travels in the vicinity of Wholestone Farms, which is owned by Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, in Fremont on July 19, 2023.
Rebecca S. Gratz, for the Flatwater Free Press

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YANQI XU Flatwater Free Press

Before becoming Nebraska’s governor three years ago, Jim Pillen built a multimillion-dollar hog enterprise. Casting himself as a conservative businessman who would grow the state’s economy, he defeated a Trump-backed candidate in the Republican primary.

Jim Pillen — Jim Pillen
Journal Star file photo

LIF-NEB-Pillenfarm_120 COPYRIGHT RESTRICTED — Pillen Family Farms, owned by Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, has about 100 hog farms across the state, including Inland Foods in Hastings. Pigs on the site, a former munitions depot, are housed in converted bunkers.
Loren Elliott, for The New York Times

LIF-NEB-Pillenfarm_137 COPYRIGHT RESTRICTED — A feed mill in Inland operated by Pillen Family Farms. The governor’s children Sarah and Brock have run the company since he took office.
Loren Elliott, for The New York Times

LIF-NEB-Pillenfarm_126 COPYRIGHT RESTRICTED — The Wholestone Farms facility in the town of Fremont. The Pillen family is a minority owner of the meat processing plant and processes a significant amount of pork there.
Loren Elliott, for The New York Times

LIF-NEB-Pillenfarm_127 — Pigs arrive to the Wholestone Farms facility for slaughter in the town of Fremont. The Pillen family is a minority owner of the meat processing plant and processes a significant amount of pork there.
Loren Elliott, for The New York Times

LIF-NEB-Pillenfarm_149 COPYRIGHT RESTRICTED — An anonymous employee of the Inland Foods hog operation in Hastings. The facility, connected to Pillen Family Farms, is comprised of repurposed old nuclear missile silos and bunkers now used to house hogs.
Loren Elliott, for The New York Times

LIF-NEB-Pillenfarm_201 COPYRIGHT RESTRICTED — Ashly Cortez-Garcia, a former employee of Pillen Family Farms, at her home in Cedar Rapids. She worked at a nearby hog operation.
Loren Elliott, for The New York Times

Pillen COPYRIGHT RESTRICTED — Gov. Jim Pillen, standing with President Trump, has visited the White House 11 times since last year.
Doug Mills, The New York Times

Yanqi Xu is a reporter for Flatwater Free Press. She examined the agricultural industry in Nebraska as a part of The New York Times’s Local Investigations Fellowship. The Flatwater Free Press is Nebraska’s first independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on investigations and feature stories that matter.