Trump's immigration clampdown could affect these 5 industries the most

The Hill

16 hours ago

As President Trump enforces his election promise to clamp down on immigration, he is coming good on his mandate: 'On day one, I will launch the largest deportation programme of criminals in the history of America.'
Once in office, Trump began to also target criminals and migrant workers, as well as students and tourists with visa issues.
White House officials have said they hope ICE can make 3,000 arrests a day. That's up from around 660 per day they made during the first 100 days of Trump's presidency.
Though an independent watchdog project at Syracuse University, The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, says that of the 51,302 people in ICE detention facilities as of the start of June, about 44% had no criminal record, apart from entering the country without permission.
There have been two notable effects of Trump's clampdowns: one is that recent immigration crackdowns are causing widespread alarm which are seeing play out in protests in LA, for example.
The second effect is that because people are being taken from the workforce, this has resulted in its own set of consequences.
Aligned with that is a wider concern around the U.S.' ability to remain competitive in terms of innovation. There is a growing concern within the tech community around global competitiveness in the face of a potentially restricted workforce.
Dmitry Litvinov is the CEO and founder of Dreem, a platform supporting tech immigration. He says that tech immigration to the U.S. has become incredibly challenging, and that this has the potential to significantly affect the U.S. AI landscape.
'As a relatively new field, AI faces unique challenges in proving applicants' eligibility and expertise for immigration,' Litvinov says.
'Even in established fields like physics, demonstrating outstanding qualifications is difficult—AI is far more complex.'
He also points out that the U.S' loss could benefit its competitors. 'Restrictive policies are driving talent to other AI hubs, strengthening rival nations and weakening U.S. innovation. Applicants report they are increasingly considering alternative AI hubs like Canada, the UK, the UAE, or even China, where immigration processes are faster and more welcoming.'
According to a recent study by Brooks Law Firm, the American workforce is being reshaped. It analyzed key U.S. industries to identify and rank the ones most vulnerable to labor disruption under potential Trump-era immigration enforcement policies.
Using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau, the firm has created a list of the industries it says may be the most affected by new immigration laws.
Reflecting the concerns of the tech sector, it says the information industry will be the most affected by the latest Trump immigration laws, with 416K immigrant workers currently in the workforce. While this represents just 1.4% of its total workforce, because it is the second-fastest growing industry, the fear is this growth can be stymied by a reduced talent pipeline.
Educational and health services rank as the second with the most to lose. That's because this is an industry with the largest share of immigrant workers at 18.4%. Effectively, this accounts to about 183,500 industry workers with the potential to be removed from the workforce.
In third place is the professional and business sector. Professional and business services employ the second-largest proportion of immigrant workers at 15.8%. Now, because of the latest Trump laws, over 157,600 workers could leave the industry.
Public administration comes fourth. Currently, 765,000 immigrant workers are employed in public administration. The study points out that because this industry has the slowest growth rate at 0.1%, this means that recovery from worker loss can take a longer time than for other industries.
In fifth place is the leisure and hospitality industry. This is an industry with a large share of immigrant workers, employing more than three million people from other countries. As a result, it has the potential to shed 101,700 workers.
Other industries are vulnerable too. The financial sector employs 5.4% immigrants, and due to a slow growth rate of 0.4%, the loss of these workers could take a long time to recover from.
In transportation and utilities, more than 2.1 million workers employed in the sector are immigrants, and in the wholesale and retail trade sector, three million immigrant workers are employed.
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