Horse racing industry braces for crackdown on illegal immigration [View all]
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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