Unions, labor exports say sectors and workers are feeling the impacts as deportations continue
Getty Images Farm workers harvesting yellow bell peppers near Gilroy, California.
Labor experts say the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign is continuing to impact working families and various sectors.
On a press call this week, labor researchers, union leaders and farmers said impacts are across the board — from people being scared to go to work amid ICE raids to costlier goods and services.
Robert Lynch is a researcher at the Economic Policy Institute and a co-founder of Economic Insights and Research Consulting.
He said the U.S. labor market has lost 1.2 million foreign born workers since January — including both undocumented immigrants and those with legal status. He said that’s especially true in industries that rely heavily on immigrant labor — like construction.
“Unauthorized immigrant workers amount to a little bit less than 5% of the total U.S. labor force. However, they represent 13% of the construction workforce,” he said. “Moreover, the recent disappointing jobs and economic growth numbers that have garnered so much attention in the media recently, the job growth, the GDP, the slow GDP growth, are at least likely partly due to our deportation policies.”
He said the slowdown was most notable in states with the highest reliance on undocumented construction labor — including Florida, Texas and California. He said their research also showed agricultural employment also plummeted by 6.5% between March and July, upending a two year trend of growth for that industry. Prices are also increasing for consumers, as the cost of beef, produce and restaurant service goes up.
Antonio De Loera-Brust, communications director with the labor union group United Farm Workers, said workers are staying home during periods of heavy ICE raids, but they’re forced to come back.
“This is not a workforce that is making enough money to be able to stay home indefinitely. This is not a workforce that has large amounts of savings they cannot afford to hide for days, let alone months or four years on end,” he said.
Earlier this year De Loera-Brust said more frequent raids are expected now, after Congress passed a bill that includes a historically-high budget for ICE.
As Politico reported, earlier this year President Trump talked about wanting to “work with” farmers for a potential solution. Nevertheless, De Loera-Brust says aggressive enforcement continues.