Last week, the US Department of Agriculture announced sweeping plans to increase slaughter line speeds at pork and poultry plants — a move that could further endanger workers who already process animals at a breakneck pace and suffer high levels of injury.

Workers in poultry plants don’t actually kill the chickens — that task is automated on what’s called the evisceration line, a conveyor belt that kills the chickens and removes their organs, which facilities can currently operate at a speed of up to 140 birds per minute. The chicken carcasses are then moved to another part of the plant where workers in cramped and cold conditions cut them up, handling dozens of birds per minute, to be packed for supermarkets and restaurants. Pork plants can currently operate at up to 1,106 pigs per hour.

For decades, the meat industry has been pushing to both speed up slaughter lines and replace federal inspectors with company employees, wishes that the USDA — under both Republican and Democratic administrations — have granted to varying degrees. Now, the Trump administration plans to give the industry perhaps its biggest win on the issue yet, which worker safety advocates say will make one of the most dangerous jobs in America even worse.

In the short term, the USDA will allow a few dozen chicken and pork processing plants that already have temporary waivers to operate slaughter lines faster to continue to do so. But the agency’s longer-term plan is much more consequential: enacting a rule that will allow all pig and chicken slaughterhouses to increase slaughter line speeds.

This comes at the same time as the Trump administration promises mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, who make up a significant share of........

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