Immigration crackdown has economic fallout for all
By Jonathan Levin / Bloomberg Opinion
Like it or not, parts of the U.S. economy depend on undocumented and other low-wage immigrant workers.
The system has evolved to assume they would always be here, especially in areas such as agriculture, hospitality and construction. You can’t strip them of their status, deport them or scare them into the shadows without unleashing a wave of complications. It’s no wonder that President Trump is second-guessing his immigration policy, with enforcement guidance changing erratically every few days.
The flip-flopping has been on display before the nation. One week, he’s announcing enforcement carve-outs for key industries and political constituencies. The next, his administration is undoing its own guidance. “Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace,” he wrote Thursday on Truth Social. According to a New York Times report Saturday, senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement official Tatum King sent an email the same day to regional leaders directing them to “hold on all work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and operating hotels.”
But by Monday, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, had ordered another U-turn, reversing the farm and hospitality guidance, according to The Washington Post. The Post cited sources as saying that Stephen Miller, an architect of the administration’s hardline policies, had lobbied against the carve-outs, while Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins had taken the other side. The mixed messages point to the inherent impossibility of delivering on nativist political promises without shooting oneself in the foot economically.
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