As President-Elect Donald Trump is set to be inaugurated this January, his promises of mass deportation loom large. President Trump said that this is priority one and that immigrants in America could see themselves deported as early as day one in office. While Trump voters may have supported this on the surface, they may not have seen the underlying economic ramifications that certain economists have brought to life.
Experts are saying that mass deportations would not only put a large hole in the job market, but would also carry large job losses for American citizens. A 2023 study shows that 44,000 US born workers could lose their job for every 500,000 immigrants. Additionally, stories from all over America are popping up about companies, big and small, who are reliant on the immigrant workforce to support their companies.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/11/trumps-mass-deportation-plan-could-have-a-big-effect-on-inflation.html
6 comments:
This is one thing that I have always found interesting, most people choose a side and stick with it, instead of breaking down the ramifications that policies can have regardless of political party.
I agree with the idea that mass deportations could have negative consequences for the job market. The construction industry came to my mind first and a study done by the University of Michigan concludes that an estimated 1.6 million immigrants work in the construction industry nationwide (nearly 20% of the industries total workforce). It will be interesting to see how this effects our infrastructure development and overall job market.
I think another thing people don't consider is the type of worker that comes to the US to work. In Professor Gitter's class, we talked about immigration and the labor market. He showed that most of the people that have an incentive to come to America to work are low waged, low skilled workers who typically work and send money back. Thus, they're taking jobs typically "unwanted" by other low skilled American workers. I live on a border town in Texas and saw these lessons in the classroom first hand. I'm interested to see what happens.
The potential impacts of Donald Trump's mass deportation policy from the job market have drawn significant debate. While Trump’s rhetoric emphasized the need to crack down on undocumented immigration, many economists have pointed out the job losses for American-born workers. In addition, there would likely be a significant disruption in the labor force if Donald Trump follows his promise. For example, immigrants make up a crucial part of many industries, from agriculture to construction to healthcare, so if immigrants left, it could create gaps in the workforce that would be hard to fill with native-born workers. For every 40,000 American-born workers that lose their jobs, 500,000 immigrants get deported, highlighting a concerning ripple effect. In addition to job losses, companies of all sizes, from small businesses to large corporations, are warning that their operations could be severely impacted. Finally, while mass deportation might fulfill a political promise, it could have serious and unintended economic consequences, affecting both American workers and businesses that depend on immigrant labor.
I think that the majority of people who were in favor of this policy, did not realize the personal affect it will have on their purchasing behavior. If this many people get deported and removed from the workplace, the cost of simple goods will increase. More specifically, locally grown foods. I would not be surprised to see a significant increase in the price of foods such as corn, rice, peanuts, etc. if this policy is enforced.
It's eye-opening to think about how many US industries rely heavily on immigrant workers. If mass deportations happened, would American workers actually step in to fill these jobs? Would they want to? This could lead to interesting changes in our job market and likely increased prices for everyday items.
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