These Tampa Bay industries are most reliant on noncitizen workers
Why it matters: The region is reliant on undocumented immigrants even while Florida works to expel them, a paradox mirrored across the nation as states carry out President Trump's mass deportation order.
By the numbers: Foreign-born noncitizens — including those who are legal residents or have work visas — make up 7.6% of Tampa Bay's total workforce, based on a 2019-2023 average of U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
They account for 44.3% of the region's workers in agriculture and mining; 17.2 % of those working in construction; and 10.3% of transportation and utilities workers.
The big picture: Agriculture and immigration are so tied in Florida that when lawmakers proposed putting the agriculture commissioner in charge of enforcement, Gov. Ron DeSantis said it would be a "fox guarding the henhouse."
Threat level: Fidel Sanchez, who owns a strawberry farm in Plant City, tells Axios that the state's aggressive crackdown on immigration has hurt his business.
He had 80 workers before Florida began its immigration reform in 2023, some of whom he had worked with for decades. Now, with increased scrutiny from the state, he says he's down to half that.
Sanchez says that to find help, he's been relying on subcontractors, who hire temporary workers on H-2A visas. That's made hiring more expensive, even while the workforce has shrunk.
"I hardly have anyone working with me now," he says. "If the economy is not good for us, then we cannot plant more. We will plant less."
Zoom out: Around 40% of crop farmworkers lack work authorization, per USDA estimates.
Between the lines: Trump earlier this summer acknowledged that his mass deportation effort is "taking very good, long time workers away from" the farming and hotel industries, and promised changes.
Yet there's still no major policy decision from the White House, which must balance economic realities with MAGA demands to deport as many people as possible.
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