US industries hit by ICE arrests

The Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration is disrupting several key industries, especially restaurants and food production that rely heavily on migrant workers, say experts.

"There is a lot of uncertainty about federal immigration policies instilling fear in immigrant communities, whether or not they have legal status, and, in some cases, it is having a chilling effect on restaurants' team members and guest traffic," Jot Condie, president and CEO of the California Restaurant Association, told China Daily.

There were an estimated 8.3 million undocumented workers in the US workforce as of 2022-23, although this number is likely higher, say experts. At least 1 million worked in restaurants, the Center for Migration Studies and Pew Research Center found.

Altogether, foreign immigrant workers, including those who are documented and those who are not, accounted for 29.1 million people in the US labor force in 2023, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Center for Migration Studies found. Almost half were Hispanic and a quarter were Asian.

Migrant workers are spread across several service industries, with at least 1.5 million in construction, 300,000 in landscaping, 200,000 in food processing and manufacturing, and 320,000 in agriculture and on farms, the center said.

In June, after widespread raids and arrests of farmworkers, the Trump administration directed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to pause raids on farms, restaurants and hotels after taking into account how vital these workers are.

"In the fields, I would say 70 percent of the workers are gone," Lisa Tate, a sixth-generation farmer in Ventura County, California, told Reuters in June. "If 70 percent of your workforce doesn't show up, 70 percent of your crop doesn't get picked and can go bad in one day. Most Americans don't want to do this work."

American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall praised the pause on ICE raids on farms, saying that migrant workers are essential for the movement of the nation's food supply.

"Agriculture is inherently labor-intensive — farmers cannot care for crops and animals without the contributions of the men and women willing to do the hard work," Duvall said in a statement.

At least 42 percent of the 2,600 crop workers interviewed by the Department of Agriculture from 2021 to 2022 did not have work authorization. If these workers are no longer around to pick crops, shortages in supermarkets will become rife, say experts.

Thomas Fullerton, an American economist and a professor of economics and finance at the University of Texas at El Paso, told China Daily that "partially empty shelves are becoming increasingly common across the country".

Undocumented workers in the United States are located across the country, Pew found. Most hail from Mexico, Central and South America, and Central and East Asia.

Under former president Joe Biden's administration, annual net migration was on average 2.4 million people from 2021 to 2023, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Net migration is the number of people arriving in the US, minus the number leaving. Total net migration in those years was over 8 million people.

Largest deportation

Illegal immigration at the US southern border has dropped significantly under the Trump administration. It comes after the president vowed to carry out the "largest mass deportation in American history" using ICE. He reportedly wants to have 3,000 arrested per day, sources told Reuters.

However, his enforcement has faced opposition. Protests over ICE raids erupted in Los Angeles last month.

At least 2,000 National Guard troops that were sent to end the outbreak were released from duty on Thursday, the Pentagon announced.

Trump also continued to press ahead with his anti-illegal migrant agenda by pushing through laws in the Republican-led Congress.

The "Big Beautiful Bill", signed into law on July 4, has expanded funds for ICE to deport illegal immigrants.

Congress gave $170 billion toward immigration enforcement to be used over four years. ICE's annual budget will rise from $8 billion to $28 billion, The New York Times reported. This will make it the federal government's highest funded law enforcement agency.

Tom Homan, Trump's "border czar", told The New York Times: "You're going to see immigration enforcement on a level you've never seen it before."

"We cannot overstate the vital contributions immigrants provide our state," Condie of the California Restaurant Association added. "They are the lifeblood of our industry. Immigrants power our workforce and have an enormous positive impact on our economy. We (California) would not be the fourth-largest economy in the world without them."

belindarobinson@chinadailyusa.com