One U.S.-born worker loses a job for every six undocumented workers who lose their jobs. This is especially true for male workers with a high school degree or less, or for industries with high rates of undocumented workers, such as construction, manufacturing, and agriculture. These are the findings of a report released this week titled “Labor Market Impacts of ICE Activity in Trump 2.0” by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a private nonpartisan research organization. The report also found that in areas with higher immigration enforcement, there were 4-5% fewer undocumented workers on the job—not from deportations, but simply from undocumented workers staying home rather than risking an encounter with federal agents.
Economist Chloe East, a co-author of the paper, told the Washington Post: “We are showing … that heightened ICE activity has been really harmful for the labor market, not only for immigrant workers who remain in the U.S. but also for U.S.-born workers. Regardless of whether we’re talking about mass deportations in the 1930s, the 2010s or 2025, the results are really similar, which is that mass deportations are not helpful for the labor market overall and do not create more job opportunities for U.S.-born workers.”
