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The immigration offensive by President Donald Trump is causing a wave of layoffs among foreign workers and increasing tensions in the U.S. labor market.
Economists warn that mass deportations, the end of humanitarian programs, and new restrictions on work visas could hinder economic growth and worsen the labor shortage in key sectors, reported the agency AP.
Among those affected is a 48-year-old Nicaraguan woman who was cleaning schools in Florida for 13 dollars an hour. In August, she lost her job after the government eliminated the humanitarian parole program initiated by the Biden administration, which provided temporary work permits to migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.
“I am desperate. I don't have any money, not even to buy food. I have five dollars left in my account and no job,” the woman told the mentioned outlet, requesting anonymity for fear of being detained or deported.
The tightening of migration policies comes at a time when hiring was already slowing down due to uncertainty regarding Trump's trade policies.
Economists warn that the forced departure of thousands of foreign workers is impacting sectors such as agriculture, construction, elderly care, and domestic services, the agency reported.
“Immigrants are good for the economy,” explained economist Lee Branstetter from Carnegie Mellon University. “Thanks to the migration flow of recent years, the inflationary surge was less severe than expected.”
According to a study by the Brookings Institution and the American Enterprise Institute, the loss of foreign labor could result in the monthly employment growth in the United States becoming “null or even negative in the coming years.”
The hiring pace has collapsed: from an average of 400,000 jobs per month during the post-pandemic boom (2021-2023), it has dropped to just 29,000 between June and August 2025.
The Congressional Budget Office has lowered its annual growth forecast from 1.9% to 1.4%, citing the effects of immigration and trade policies.
In Virginia, the nonprofit organization Goodwin Living —which provides housing and health services to seniors— had to lay off four Haitian employees when their permits were revoked. "It was a very difficult day. They were exemplary workers," lamented its executive director, Rob Liebreich.
Of the 1,500 employees at the institution, 60% are immigrants. “We are facing serious issues in replacing them. We need these people, all those hands,” said Liebreich.
The new immigration legislation, referred to by Republicans as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”, allocates 150 billion dollars for the enhancement of deportations and border surveillance.
The law includes 46.5 billion to hire 10,000 agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and 45 billion to expand detention centers.
Since its approval on July 4, the operations have intensified. In September, immigration agents broke into a Hyundai battery plant in Georgia, where they detained 300 South Korean workers, several of them handcuffed. The incident enraged the Seoul government and called into question Trump's strategy to attract foreign investment.
"These incidents send the wrong message to business partners and deter investments," warned South Korean President Lee Jae Myung.
The migration crackdown is also hitting agriculture, one of the pillars of the Republican vote. “ICE is pursuing workers who are just trying to make a living,” denounced John Boyd Jr., a farmer in Virginia and president of the National Black Farmers Association.
Boyd questioned the statements made by the Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, who suggested that Medicaid recipients should work in the fields. “No one from the city is going to come and bend over for 10 hours under the sun at 40 degrees. It's unrealistic,” he stated.
The Department of Labor itself acknowledged, in a statement on October 2, that the labor shortage resulting from the migration closure is causing "significant disruptions to the production costs and threats to the country's food stability".
The economist Jed Kolko from the Peterson Institute for International Economics warns that the effects will be long-lasting: “Immigrants have contributed innovation, productivity, and patents. By closing that door, the United States loses part of its competitive edge.”
With an aging workforce and more vacancies than available workers, analysts fear that the country faces a new cycle of economic slowdown, inflation, and rising prices.
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