Democrats say enforcing immigration laws and cutting back on visa programs would hurt the economy and make many goods and services more expensive. That’s because the lower wages typically paid to illegal immigrants and immigrants on temporary work visas have come to subsidize parts of the economy. Oftentimes, corporate America reaps the benefits. In this series, Immigrationomics, the Washington Examiner will look at where and how illegal immigrants are finding work, as well as how corporations take advantage of visa programs to import cheaper labor. Part one will look at where illegal immigrants are working.
For decades, one immigration debate has divided the Left and the Right: are illegal immigrants taking jobs from Americans or doing jobs U.S. citizens simply will not do?
President Donald Trump’s return to office this year has put the issue front and center, particularly as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement targets job sites nationwide where illegal immigrants are employed.
In June, for example, 76 workers were arrested by federal immigration authorities at a Nebraska meatpacking company.
Days later, the company’s front office was filled with job seekers filling out applications, hopeful about snagging one of the vacant positions — a sign that perhaps those illegal immigrants had been in jobs that Americans would do given the chance.
Where are illegal immigrants working
As many as 8.5 million illegal immigrants are presently in the U.S. workforce. That’s according to the Center for Migration Studies of New York, a think tank and educational organization that studies international migration. CMS compiled its latest analysis of employment trends, released in August, by pulling data from the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey.
The construction industry employs 20% of illegal immigrants, followed by accommodation and food services at 12%, manufacturing at 11%, administrative, support, and waste management services each at 10%, and retail trade at 8%.
Among specific jobs, roughly 574,700 people are employed as constructor laborers, followed by 364,200 maids and house cleaners, and 335,200 cooks.
The top nationalities of workers are Mexican, Guatemalan, and Salvadoran.
Immigrants are drawn to large cities and small businesses for work, according to Curbelo Law, a bilingual immigration law firm based in Ridgewood, New Jersey.
Illegal immigrant workforce is hurting US
A Pew Research Center survey published in October 2024 concluded that three-in-four registered voters believe illegal immigrants “mostly fill jobs that Americans don’t want.”
The Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington-based organization that advocates for limited immigration, has maintained that there is no job that Americans will not do.
“This is patently false because they are working in jobs in which U.S. workers are also employed — whether in construction, agricultural harvesting, or service professions,” FAIR said in a statement. “In fact, as one study demonstrates, ‘of the 474 civilian occupations, only six are majority immigrant (legal and illegal).’”
Steven Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies, made the case that in the two dozen occupations where illegal immigrants make up at least 15% of workers, 5.7 million Americans are also employed.
“There is clear evidence that immigration reduces the wages and employment of some U.S.-born workers, though distinguishing the impact of illegal immigration in particular is difficult,” Camarota said in a prepared statement issued during the Biden border crisis.
Camarota said this was apparent particularly among working-age, less-educated American men who give up looking for work. They do not show up in unemployment statistics.
“In total, there are some 44 million U.S.-born 16- to 64-year-olds not in the labor force — nearly 10 million more than in 2000,” Camarota said.
Why illegal immigrant workers are necessary
Although immigration enforcement is federally mandated, the executive branch has determined for decades how seriously to take that. Trump has pushed ICE to deport all criminal illegal immigrants and those who have been ordered removed from the country by a judge. White House border czar Tom Homan has stated that “collateral” arrests — such as, illegal immigrants without criminal histories — will also be arrested and face deportation.
CMS’s Matthew Lisiecki said removing this group of workers from the workforce, including through the “ceiling effect of indiscriminate enforcement” will “put the country’s ability to fill the occupations necessary for economic growth at risk.”
However, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said jobs numbers released in August indicated that the 1.6 million non-U.S. citizens who have left the Untied States since January have not hurt the economy because Americans who were out of work have stepped up to take those jobs.
“The July jobs report shows that as illegal aliens continue to exit the labor force, more Americans are finding steady and gainful employment. President Trump and Secretary Noem’s leadership is making America both safe and prosperous again,” McLaughlin said in a statement.
FLORIDA HIGHWAY PATROL HAS ARRESTED 6,200 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FOR ICE
The American Business Immigration Coalition said the public should look at California, which has one of the nation’s highest illegal immigrant workforces, to see how that population helps the state rather than hurts it.
“Studies show that immigrants contribute to job creation rather than job loss. For instance, in California, which has one of the highest immigrant populations, the unemployment rate is lower than the national average,” ABIC stated in a report.
