Immigrants are estimated to make up nearly 20% of the U.S. workforce, and 45% of workers in the agriculture, fishing, and forestry sectors are in this status, yet this situation has shifted under the new political landscape.
Since Donald Trump’s return to the White House for his second non-consecutive term, at least 1.2 million migrants have disappeared from the U.S. workforce. This decline, the first in decades, comes alongside proposed cuts by the Republican leader’s administration to the International Labour Organization (ILO).
According to reports, fear of detention and deportation has led thousands of undocumented immigrants to leave their jobs.
While the country celebrates parades and other events honoring workers’ contributions on Labor Day, experts say President Donald Trump’s intensified immigration policies are impacting the nation’s workforce.
The loss of immigrant workers comes as the country experiences its first decline in the overall immigrant population after the number of people in the U.S. under this status reached a historic high of 14 million in 2023.
During his campaign, Trump promised to deport millions of immigrants working illegally in the U.S. He has said deportations are focused on “dangerous criminals,” but most people detained by ICE have no criminal record. Meanwhile, the number of illegal border crossings has plummeted.
“In his first 100 days since returning to the White House in January, President Donald Trump implemented 181 executive actions on immigration to restrict new arrivals and deport non-citizen immigrants. The full effects of these policies remain to be seen, but they are already contributing to the decline in the immigrant population, particularly the undocumented population,” notes a Pew Research Center article, which highlights that over half of migrants in the U.S. come from Latin American nations such as Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia, and Venezuela.
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