Bessent Mocked After Claim That Migrants Bringing Cattle Are Driving Soaring Beef Prices

Summary: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent faced widespread ridicule after suggesting that rising beef prices are driven by migrants bringing infected cattle across the southern border. Experts and officials say there is little evidence to support that claim; economists point to domestic supply issues and recent tariff policies as more plausible drivers of higher prices.

What Bessent said

During a Sunday interview with Maria Bartiromo on Fox News, Scott Bessent described the beef market as in a "perfect storm" the White House "inherited" and attributed part of the price surge to migrants entering the U.S. from Latin America.

"Because of the mass immigration, a disease that we'd been rid of in North America made its way up through South America as these migrants brought some of their cattle with them," he said. "We're not gonna let that get into our supply chain."

Official response and public health context

The U.S. Department of Agriculture did announce in early May that it was suspending imports of live cattle, horses and bison across the southern border after New World Screwworm cases were reported in Mexico. However, federal authorities have reported no confirmed animal detections of the screwworm in the United States since the outbreak was first noted in Mexico last November.

There has been at least one documented human case tied to travel to El Salvador, but that case occurred in Maryland and was linked to travel abroad rather than domestic transmission. Public-health officials have not presented evidence that migrants are routinely transporting live cattle in numbers that could affect national beef supplies.

Why experts dispute Bessent’s explanation

Economists and agricultural analysts say the recent jump in beef prices is better explained by a combination of structural and policy-related factors, including long-term U.S. cattle shortages, drought and pasture degradation that reduce herd sizes and productivity. Analysts also point to recent tariff policies — described by critics as sweeping and broad — that have increased costs for feed and production as well as higher levies on imported beef.

Those higher input costs are typically passed on to consumers, contributing to the retail price increases shoppers see at the grocery store.

Public reaction

Bessent’s comments were quickly mocked on social media. One X user wrote, "Scott Bessent says the reason beef prices are so high is because immigrants from South America are bringing their cattle... What a weird take!" Former NBC host Chuck Todd tweeted, "Huh? Talk about a ‘big if true’ (narrator: it’s not true) — this has to be A.I. slop, can’t be a serious take from the Sec. Of Treasury?"

Others posted memes and doctored images lampooning the idea of cattle being transported en masse across the border. The online reaction highlighted how unusual and, to many observers, implausible the claim appeared without supporting evidence.

Bottom line

While the USDA’s import suspension is a precaution tied to a regional outbreak, there is no public evidence that migrant-borne cattle are affecting U.S. supply at a scale that would explain nationwide price spikes. The more likely drivers of higher beef prices remain complex domestic factors — herd declines, weather-related challenges, and policy choices that affect production costs — and analysts say those deserve primary attention when assessing food-price inflation.