Donald Trump took to Truth Social to call on ICE officials to expand efforts to “detain Illegal Aliens” in cities at the “core of Democrat Power Center.” It comes after deportations in Los Angeles sparked protests.
Donald Trump took to Truth Social to call on ICE officials to expand efforts to “detain Illegal Aliens” in cities at the “core of Democrat Power Center.” It comes after deportations in Los Angeles sparked protests.
Not in general, no. Likely the opposite, I think, but there are so many complex interactions I wouldn’t trust anyone giving a definitive answer.
In general, undocumented immigrants do work that citizens are unwilling to do, and they’re generally paid so little that they produce a lot more value than they’re paid in wages. So, for example, produce prices will likely skyrocket when they can’t get undocumented immigrants picking their produce for cheap. This will squeeze wages up the entire supply chain and, due to inflation, real wages across the whole economy. This will also make American produce less competitive internationally, reducing exports.
The labour instability will also increase business uncertainty, which will reduce investment, which will further reduce economic growth.
Sure, there are a few people who might benefit, but mostly this will just mean there’s less total economic output. If people can’t hire a house cleaner, they’ll just have a messier house and get it cleaned less frequently (or do it themselves, potentially in lieu of doing other paid work). Are you or anyone you know going to move rural to pick lettuce? Or clean houses? Or sew clothing? (Etc. across all the “undesirable” jobs across the economy.)
In general, I don’t care whether anyone wants the job or not, it still needs to be paying a living wage.
Which is why we need immigration reform so we don’t have a class of folks who are really important for our economy who are considered illegal. It’s ridiculous.
But we also can not have the status quo where we are randomly separating families and doing raids and what not. We can’t have what we had before this either, we need immigration reform. It will raise wages and allow folks a path to citizenship.