There are a couple of problems for tRump and his anti-immigration work. Not only is he flying illegal *and* legal immigrants out of the country, he’s refusing to let anyone in. He has shut down the Mexican border crossings. He has canceled flights of already vetted immigrants. This is leading to a pretty impressive drop of immigrants and workers for the US and it’s going to have ramifications for those of us here. But his “border czar” will keep it all going since the Mandarin Mango got it started.
Let’s begin with the obvious. We depend on immigrants for industries, such as cleaning and construction. As the American population is aging, we are desperate for elder care workers. We depend on farmers and their crops, but the product will be rotting where it grows because we don’t have enough people to harvest them. We need people in related industries like meat packing plants.
So fewer people will lead to higher prices because we, the consumer, won’t have enough product anymore. Eggs don’t count as they are related to the avian flu, although it’s started showing up in cows, so that hits the dairy industry. Farmers won’t get paid very much for their products. Orchard growers won’t have enough products and won’t get paid very much, either. Even though scarcity will arise, these people won’t see a penny of the price increase for the American consumer, so we start losing them because they can’t live on the little they make.
Now, let’s get into some statistics. Last year, about 2.8 million people immigrated to the United States legally, according to the Census Bureau. That includes refugees and those entering the country through worker visas, accounting for 84% of the country’s population growth in 2024. But. The Allianz Trade forecast estimates that Trump’s crackdown on illegal and legal immigration could drag down GDP to an annualized growth rate of below 2% by 2026. The Brookings Institution estimates that growth could be 0.4 percentage-point lower this year, if Trump continues to restrict legal immigration and manages to conduct 3.4 million deportations. And immigrants comprise more than 20% of employment in agriculture, construction, transportation, warehousing, general services, and waste services by estimation. One more: “These industries have very tight labor markets, so being very restrictive and aggressive on immigration is not going to give Trump that economic growth and success that he wants,” said Giovanni Peri, an economics professor at the University of California, Davis, who studies the intersection of immigration and labor.
Remember what I said earlier about prices? This could very well kick inflation into overdrive. And the Confused Carrot is just rabid about immigrants, so it will be much harder for them to get into the US, if they managed to get in at all. Reductions in personnel and funding mean the process will take longer – if it’s even started. And again, farmers with no one to get the produce. Less construction workers, so new houses will slow down. And fewer houses means fewer people can get them. So all his craziness about immigrants and his “border czar” will instead send the country down, not up. I wonder if he’ll even realize it. I doubt it. Sad.
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Perhaps some Democratic members of the House and Senate should propose a resolution stripping Melania’s citizenship and deporting her back to Slovenia. Purely as a middle finger to Trump.