Horse racing industry braces for crackdown on illegal immigration

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: NPR

May 19, 2025 5:00 AM ET



On the front side of a horse racing track, one finds bright, decadent hats, pastel suits and $22 mint juleps. And on the backside of the track, one finds hundreds of workers, primarily immigrants, washing and exercising muscular thoroughbreds at 3 a.m. on the soft, thick track. "If we couldn't have an immigrant workforce on the backside, I don't know how horse racing exists," said Dale Romans, a racehorse trainer in Kentucky. "We can't send them home and ask them to come back. There's nobody to do the work when they're gone."

Horse racing generated some $36 billion in 2023, the latest figure available, and supports nearly half a million jobs, according to the American Horse Council. It's considered one of the oldest sports in America. Beyond the racetrack itself, getting one horse to race is itself a multimillion-dollar endeavor, from the training and the grooms to the feed and the farms. That effort primarily relies on H-2B visas to get workers. But there are also plenty of workers without visas or other legal status, industry experts say.

Immigration enforcement largely left the industry untouched during the first Trump administration. Industry leaders say that's because President Trump recognized the sizable impact of immigrant labor and catered to his agriculture voting base, which tends to be largely Republican.

No specific figures are available for horse racing, but estimates show that some 42% of hired crop farmworkers, for example, don't have legal status. Estimates are even higher among workforces that deal with animals or livestock. This time, industry observers aren't sure they'll again be able to avoid a larger crackdown.

Read more: https://www.npr.org/2025/05/19/nx-s1-5385010/trump-immigration-enforcement-horse-racing

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[BoRaGard]

1. "Ha ha. More suckers and losers. Ha ha." - Krasnov (R-Felon/Rapist) and Kronies (R)

[Alice B.]

2. The racing industry is the biggest and most visible part of the horse industry (to the non-horse public) but...

There are other sports and disciplines within the horse industry that also employ immigrant labor. I've seen some ugly arguments erupt online among horse show folks suddenly taking an interest in the status of the folks caring for their horses.

[TommieMommy]

3. They can say goodbye to probably most of the jockeys and farm hands

[Alice B.]

4. Few are truly illegal; few to no jockeys

Their gig is too public-facing. They get a share of purses; are subject to rules and regulations of their racing jurisdictions. They're also licensed. Actually, just about every role on the backstretch requires a license from the state (including grooms). Most are here via visa. I think a larger issue is how indiscriminate these raids are.

Here's an article from the Louisville C-J.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. Under this new U.S. regime, anyone here with a "Visa" can be considered "illegal" by 45 and deported

From the OP excerpt -

That effort primarily relies on H-2B visas to get workers

Ask all those college students who were here "on Visas" who were removed when the Visas were revoked and they were now considered "illegals".

(ETA - the jockey who rode Sovereignty in the KY Derby - Junior Alvarado - is Venezuelan and I am assuming is here on a visa. He had "an infraction" with overuse of the whip and was fined and banned for a couple races. The 45 administration can easily consider that "criminal activity" and deport his ass so fast it could have outraced that horse)

[Alice B.]

10. I take your point. However, I believe there's a 3-year cap on an H-2B visa stay. Alvarado has been riding here since 07.

... Per at least one bio, he began riding full-time on the New York circuit in 2010. Given his year-to-year record and earnings (total career to date/since 2007: $150,621,140 according to Equibase), I don't think he's here on a visa anymore.

That said, you're right. No one is safe here anymore. I've just noticed a broad brush being used that 'all of these riders must be here on a visa (if that)' which at times doesn't strike me as any more discriminate than ICE or the administration's behavior.

[BumRushDaShow]

11. "I believe there's a 3-year cap on an H-2B visa stay"

This administration has "rewritten the law" with their own interpretations so anything that is actually "lawful" is irrelevant to them.

45 has been implementing E.O.s as his own "new law" to supersede the Constitution and ACTUAL "law" (despite an E.O. NOT being a "law", but is simply supposed to be "instructions" for how Executive Branch employees are to carry out THE LAW passed by Congress and signed by the President (or that goes into effect without a signature under certain circumstances or that has a Presidential veto overridden by Congress).

From here - https://www.propublica.org/article/donald-trump-immigration-executive-orders

Travel bans

Seeks to identify countries considered to have “vetting and screening information” that is “deficient” in order to determine whether it is fully or partially suspending entry of those nations’ citizens to the U.S.

History
Soon after taking office, Trump issued a sweeping travel ban that barred nearly all travelers from five mainly Muslim countries as well as North Korea and Venezuela. The order was immediately challenged in court. After several revisions, the U.S. Supreme Court eventually upheld a third version of the order.

Junior Alvarado is from a "banned country" per this idiotic E.O. and can have any Visa that he has (if he has one) revoked and can be deported, and it will take months to resolve through the (slow) courts. If his Visa is expired, he can be a goner almost immediately if they want. I.e., if he is not a naturalized citizen and is not here as a "legal resident" or on a green card, then he can be "disappeared".

[Alice B.]

12. Thank you for clarifying that.

I'll put what's irking me more plainly, is the leading but unspoken presumption that the riders at this level, in the US, working for the leading trainers and owners are all here on a visa (if that, "if he has one&quot if they're originally from a Latin American country.

I can't find confirmation but I'm going to bet Junior Alvarado is naturalized (Citizen Bull's rider Martin Garcia is). And not just because of the family Alvarado has established here (wife and three kids), his long-running career or home on Long Island. Would I think any of that makes him safe in the current climate? Not necessarily.

Are a lot of them here on a visa (P or O typically), sure. All of them? No.

But again, thank you for the additional context regarding visas and the TSF administration.

[BumRushDaShow]

14. "I can't find confirmation but I'm going to bet Junior Alvarado is naturalized"

I would not assume that, especially since he has traveled back and forth to Venezuela. Considering his stature, most "bio" articles would note something along the line of "He was eventually naturalized in (fill in year)).

It takes a long time to become "naturalized" and until now, there really was no need to do so right away (particularly in his field with the established Visa system and "protection" coming from his industry).

The difference between Alvarado and Garcia is that Garcia didn't come to the U.S. as a jockey, he immigrated here to work and was drawn into horse handling and eventually being a jockey.

But Alvarado's father is a jockey in Venezuela and so the son followed in his footsteps to do the same, with Junior racing in both countries. And now you have 45 blowing up the whole Visa system (illegally).

From here - https://www.americasbestracing.net/jockeys/junior-alvarado

Alvarado was originally to be named Rafael Alvarado Jr. but when his father went to register the name it came out Junior Rafael Alvarado and he's been called Junior ever since. Alvarado and his wife, Kelly, have a son, Adrian, and a daughter, Adalyn.
Alvarado started riding in America in South Florida in 2007. He thought about returning to his native Venezuela but decided move his tack to Chicago at the urging of trainer Moises Yanez, for whom he enjoyed considerable success.

Junior made a big splash in his first meet at Arlington in 2008, winning 81 races to finish eighth in the standings. After the 2008 Arlington meet, he went to Hawthorne for a time before returning to Venezuela. He returned to the United States in time for the 2009 Arlington meet and jumped to the head of the class in his second meet at Arlington, taking the 2009 riding title with 110 wins, three more than James Graham. He won three stakes races at the meet in the Illinois Owners Stakes with Voy Por Uno Mas, the Sea Erin with Public Speaker and the Grade III Arlington-Washington Lassie aboard eventual Eclipse Award winning 2-year-old filly She Be Wild.

In his bid to repeat as riding champion, Junior finished second to Michael Baze in the standings with 97 victories. However, he scored the biggest win of his young career when he guided Richard L. Duchossois Éclair de Lune to victory in the Beverly D. Stakes to record his first Grade 1 win.

Alvarado moved in 2010 to New York to ride full time. Alvarado added Grade 1 wins in 2012 with Emma's Encore and 2013 aboard Strapping Groom and Flat Out. During the 2013 season, Alvarado estanblished (sic) a new benchmark for purse earnings in a single season with $12,865,602. In 2014, he won the $1.5 million Whitney Stakes on Moreno on Aug. 2 and later that month he recorded the 1,000th win of his career when he rode Sherkis to victory in the fourth race on Aug. 25 at Saratoga Race Course.

(snip)

[Alice B.]

18. Again, thank you.

[Bengus81]

13. Isn't that type of Visa a special one that very few can get? Most Visa's expire in a year but I think can be renewed

for one more. That was the law before Trump. Now it's whatever........

[Alice B.]

17. Yes, for athletes and others contributing a particular talent

Here’s an NPR piece that references it in regard to the racing industry:

https://www.npr.org/2025/05/03/nx-s1-5376454/kentucky-derby-jockeys-latino

[TommieMommy]

6. How interesting. Thank you.

[chernabogg]

7. Fuck horse racing

And any other animal exploitation.

[Bayard]

8. Most larger boarding barns use immigrants anymore,

No idea if they're on visas or not. Stall cleaning, feeding, etc. More jobs that regular Americans want no part of doing.

[Aristus]

9. Any takers as to if those rich dickheads with their pastel suits

and $22 mint juleps are going to get up off their lazy white asses and do the work themselves?

Yeah, me neither…

[Bengus81]

15. LOL...yet another....I thought Trump would only deport criminals when I VOTED for him

THREE TIMES. Once again....FAFO!!

[BumRushDaShow]

16. Wait until they start combing through MLB.