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Southern states have many small counties, which makes tracking the changing face of their populations easier in census data. The number of Hispanics in southern states quadrupled between 1990 and 2005, rising to 2.4 million from 562,663. The result is the kind of rapid change that the US last experienced a century ago, when southern and Eastern Europeans arrived in the cities of the north and Midwest.

Atkinson County, Georgia, with a population of 8,000, was described a "cauldron of demographic change" in the New York Times on August 4, 2006. Between 1990 and 2004, the Hispanic share of the county's population rose from three to 21 percent, as the number of Hispanics surpassed the number of Blacks, who are 19 percent of residents. Some local residents believe that "third-world" immigration will make the county a "third-world place." The county is poor, with a quarter of residents having below poverty-level incomes and 44 percent of the housing mobile homes, according to the 2000 census.

Atkinson County's demographic change began with farm workers in the late 1980s, after IRCA legalized a sixth of the adult men in rural Mexico. Some migrants settled and moved into nonfarm jobs or opened businesses catering to the growing number of Hispanic residents. Some local businesses benefited from the growing population, but some local leaders decried the rapid population growth, in the number of non-English speaking students, and uncompensated health care costs. Some Hispanics, in turn, complain of police harassment.

The New York Times in October 2006 emphasized that Hispanics in Georgia have lower unemployment rates than Blacks, seem to be preferred over Blacks by factory employers, and operate more small shops and stores. Many Hispanics say that Blacks avoid hard work, while Blacks say that Hispanics are willing to work harder for lower wages because they are immigrants.

About 75 percent of US-produced carpets are made in 150 factories around Dalton, a city of 25,000 in Georgia. In 2006, about half of Dalton-area carpet workers were Latinos, as were over 60 percent of the K-12 students; the number of Hispanics in Whitfield county rose from 2,000 in 1990 to 18,000 by 2000.

Latinos began arriving after legalization in 1987-88, as networks spread the word that there were factory jobs in Dalton paying more than seasonal farm work or nonfarm meatpacking and services such as janitorial work. Most carpet factories offer entry level wages of $8.50 to $10 an hour, and many workers reportedly use false documents to get jobs. Some experts say that, when 1996 summer Olympics construction projects fell behind schedule, and immigration authorities promised not to enforce sanctions laws actively, Hispanics headed for Atlanta and have since spread from there around Georgia.

Dalton's Mohawk Industries is being sued by local workers under a 1996 law that makes those knowingly hiring unauthorized workers subject to triple penalties under RICO. The workers allege that Mohwak knowingly hired illegal workers to hold down wages.

Tifton is a city of 15,000 in south Georgia, with 1,200 Hispanics. After the murder of six Hispanics by several Blacks in September 2005, Tifton hired several Spanish-speaking officers.

Meat. On June 20, 2006, the United Food and Commercial Workers union held a rally in Chicago with immigrant rights groups to spur an organizing drive at Smithfield Foods in Tar Heel, North Carolina. The UFCW has been trying to organize the plant, the world's largest pork processing facility, for several years. Almost half of the 5,000 employees are Hispanic and 40 percent are Black; Hispanics dominate the cutting line and Blacks the kill floor.

Smithfield has a $120 million annual payroll in Bladen County, and thwarted union elections in 1994 and 1997, according to the National Labor Relations Board. Smithfield said that it pays $7.50 to $12 an hour, and that most workers do not want to be represented by a union.

Tyson Fresh Meats closed two Nebraska plants, one employing 365 workers in West Point, population 3,600, and the other employing 1,300 workers in Norfolk, population 24,000, in February 2006. Migrants moved to these small towns for meatpacking jobs. Refugees from Ethiopia and Somali left the area when the plants closed, but many of the Latinos have stayed. Tyson, which received state tax breaks to operate the plants, is expanding its Dakota City, Nebraska plant, which now has 3,600 employees.

Nebraska is second only to Texas in the number of cattle processed, about 7.6 million in 2005. About 26,000 of Nebraska's 775,000 workers are employed in meatpacking, with major plants in Schuyler, a city of 5,200 with a 2,100-employee Cargill plant, and Lexington, a city of 10,000 with a 2,700 employee Swift & Co plant.

US meat exports fell sharply in 2004-05, in part because countries such as Japan banned imports of US beef for two years when mad cow disease was found in the US in 2003 and 2006. Japanese inspectors will inspect US meat-processing plants, setting a precedent that troubles some meatpackers, who argue that if USDA says meat is safe, other countries should consider US meat safe.

Catfish. The $275 million-a-year catfish industry of Mississippi, which produced about half of US farm-raised catfish in 2005, has traditionally employed mostly Black women. Indianola, a city of 12,000, is home to Delta Pride, a catfish processor with 1,200 employees. The UFCW organized Delta Pride in 1986 amid a protest over a productivity standard that workers skin 25 or more catfish a minute. Under the UFCW, wages rose to $5.50 an hour.

Hispanics began arriving in Indianola in the mid-1990s, and many did not join established unions in catfish processing. With Hispanic immigrants finding jobs in hospitality, poultry, forestry and construction, there is sometimes tension between established Blacks and newcomer Hispanics. A third of the area's 5,500 catfish workers are Hispanic, and some Black workers say that a crackdown on illegal migrants would make it easier for them to win wage and benefit increases during contract negotiations.

Rachel L. Swarns, " A Racial Rift That Isn't Black and White," New York Times, October 3, 2006. Rachel L. Swarns, "In Georgia, Immigrants Unsettle Old Sense of Place," New York Times, August 4, 2006. Darryl Fears, "Union Tries to Unite Blacks, Latinos," Washington Post, July 24, 2006. Dale Russakoff, "Georgia's 'Carpet Capital' Relies on Immigrants," Washington Post, July 17, 2006. Jenny Jarvie, "With a Little Help From Neighbors," Los Angeles Times, July 9, 2006.