Uihleins Shuttled In Workers From Mexico

Uline. Photo by Dave Reid.

Billionaire conservatives Elizabeth and Richard Uihlein are two of the nation’s biggest donors to MAGA Republicans like President Donald Trump and to Republicans in Wisconsin. In the 2024 presidential election, Richard Uihlein’s super PAC, Restoration PAC, supported Trump’s presidential campaign with a TV advertisement attacking his opponent, Kamala Harris, for allowing an immigrant “invasion” at the U.S.-Mexico border.

In fact, the Uihleins’ company Uline had for years been shuttling in workers from Mexico to work at its plants in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Florida, as the Guardian reported in December. “The sources who spoke to the Guardian said Uline pays all the costs for their Mexico-based workers to leave Mexico and fly to warehouse locations in the U.S.,” the story reported.

The workers were paid far less than their American counterparts, with the company paying these imported workers Mexican wages deposited into accounts in Mexico. “Guardian reporters … observed a dozen Uline workers from Mexico living in a hotel near the company’s Pleasant Prairie headquarters, where the company pays for their lodging, food and rental cars.”

The workers were brought into this country using tourist visas and visas meant for employees who are entering the U.S. temporarily to receive professional training, known as B1, sources close to the company said. “But instead of being part of a dedicated training program, the Mexican employees stay for one to six months and … perform normal work in Uline’s U.S. warehouses. … Lawyers and immigrants’ advocates told the Guardian they believed the alleged practice is likely illegal and could be exploitative of the workers enrolled in the program.”

Last week the Guardian did a follow-up story including an interview with a Mexican worker named Christian Valenzuela, who shared a letter from Uline requesting a B1 training visa for him. Valenzuela said the training never happened. “We were just going to work,” he said. “They always gave us the heaviest work,” he said.

He suffered an accident on the job, which left him permanently disabled, Valenzuela said. Ultimately Uline canceled his contract and refused to provide any benefits or medical care for his problems.

The story noted that during the 2024 presidential campaign JD Vance gave a speech at the Uline plant in Allentown, Pennsylvania, using it as an example of a company that keeps jobs in the United States. A Trump-Vance administration, he noted, would remove “illegal aliens” from the country and “reward companies that build here in America and give good wages to do it.”

“Uline has never responded to the Guardian’s questions about the shuttle program, which sources familiar with the program say abruptly ended in 2024, after the Guardian’s [December] story was published,” last week’s story noted.

In response to the latest story, Milwaukee alderperson JoCasta Zamarripa, who is running for Wisconsin secretary of state, released a statement calling for an investigation of labor abuses at the Uline plant in Pleasant Prairie.

“The billionaire Uihlein family — among the biggest Republican mega-donors in the nation — have helped bankroll the very politicians, including Donald Trump, behind today’s out-of-control immigration crackdowns,” she declared. “Now we learn that workers in Pleasant Prairie say Mexican employees were pushed into dangerous, exhausting conditions and punished for speaking up — all while fueling Uline’s enormous wealth.”

Zamarripa urged state and federal authorities “to review the allegations and determine whether labor, civil rights, or human trafficking laws were violated.”

The privately held company Uline is estimated to be worth $8 billion, and the Uihleins have made the list of billionaires compiled each year by Forbes magazine. Richard Uihlein is a descendant of the old-money Milwaukee Uihlein family, which owned the Schlitz brewery, and he and his wife live in northern Illinois and have a summer home in Wisconsin’s North Woods.

For years the Uihleins have been among the top donors nationally to Republican candidates and causes. A 2022 report by ProPublica found that in the 2021-22 cycle the Uihleins ranked first among Republican contributors in federal elections at $60 million. Along with Diane Hendricks, the Uihleins have been the leading donors to Republican candidates in Wisconsin. They are “max” donors to Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany and gave $1 million to the Wisconsin College Republicans, which then turned around and gave an $86,000 donation to Tiffany’s campaign. Tiffany is a strong supporter of Trump’s policies on immigration.