A Democratic lawmaker is calling for an investigation into a company owned by two of President Donald Trump’s biggest campaign donors over its use of immigrant labor.
Milwaukee City Council member JoCasta Zamarripa publicly criticized billionaires Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein on Facebook after an investigation by The Guardian found that their Wisconsin-headquartered company brought in workers from Mexico to U.S. warehouses on visas not intended for full-time employment.
“This is the rigged system in plain sight: billionaires fund the crackdown, then exploit the very people targeted by it—because they think money shields them from consequences," Zamarripa, who is running for the Democratic nomination for Wisconsin secretary of state, wrote on Facebook this month.
Uline, the company owned by the leading MAGA donors, is a leading distributor of shipping, packaging, and industrial supplies. According to its website, it employs over 9,000 people across North America, including in Mexico.
In December, Vice President JD Vance held a rally at one of Uline’s warehouses. During the event, Vance stood on a stage bearing a banner that read “Lower Prices, Bigger Paychecks.”
An investigation by The Guardian, conducted in December 2024 and based on interviews with sources—including Mexican workers at the company—found that the $8 billion company used a program called “shuttle support” to bring warehouse workers from Mexico to the U.S. on tourist visas or B1 visas, which are intended for training purposes.
Zamarripa called for a “real investigation” into Uline, saying in her statement that “Mexican employees were pushed into dangerous, exhausting conditions and punished for speaking up—all while fueling Uline’s enormous wealth" in Pleasant Prairie, a village in Wisconsin.
“It is a way for Uline to undercut wages for US workers, while also not paying justly the Mexican workers for what their co-workers are earning here for the exact same work, while also having to sacrifice time away from their families and communities,” Christine Neumann-Ortiz, director of the Wisconsin immigrant and labor rights group Voces de la Frontera, told The Guardian.
Neumann-Ortiz alleged that the Uihleins were profiting “off the backs of Mexicans.”
Immigration lawyers told The Guardian the Uihlein’s practices were “illegal.” Their own labor practices stand in stark contrast to Richard Uihlein’s donation of approximately $59 million to the conservative Restoration PAC during the 2024 election year. That group supported Trump’s presidential campaign with ads attacking then-Vice President Kamala Harris for failing to protect the southern border against an illegal immigration “invasion.”
According to sources who spoke with The Guardian, executives at the company, including Elizabeth Uihlein, were allegedly aware that Uline was bringing in staff from Mexico to work in the U.S.
The Daily Beast has contacted Uline for comment.
“They were not able to staff their warehouses, especially in Pennsylvania. So they looked at Mexico for workforce,” one person alleged when speaking with the Guardian.
Zamarripa’s statement, calling for “accountability that applies to everyone,” comes as Trump, 79, announced that he is not slowing down his harsh immigration crackdown—a stance aligned with the president’s biggest donors, including the Uihleins.
On Tuesday, during his State of the Union address, the president said he would ignite a “war on fraud” against Somalis in Minnesota and told the audience to stand if they agreed with his claim that the “first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.”
