NYT 5/21/26
The Trump administration has long claimed that mass deportations would deliver more jobs and higher wages to American-born workers. But a new study casts doubt on that assertion, undermining a central tenet of the president’s immigration policy.
Recent surges in deportations have led to job losses for both immigrant and American-born workers, while wages have stayed flat, according to the study, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a nonpartisan research organization. Construction, which depends heavily on immigrant labor, was impacted more than any other industry studied, with American-born workers losing more jobs as a result of the deportations than the undocumented workers who remained.The researchers found no evidence that employers increased wages to attract American workers. Instead, work slowed.In construction — where the researchers estimated 15 percent of the work force is undocumented — American-born workers have paid a price for the deportations, the study found: Employment dropped by 3 percent for male American-born workers without a college degree, and 7.5 percent for undocumented workers. For each arrest, six American-born workers lost a job, and four undocumented workers lost one.
Amid a tight labor market, Mr. Alvarez said other subcontractors are also racing to replace the workers they’ve lost as projects pile up. Some of the subcontractors he once competed against have gone out of business. “Pretty much everybody is on the hunt,” he said. “A lot of companies lost a lot of good employees.”
However, he said, in the four years that he has owned his company, no American-born worker has ever applied for a job. And none have applied to fill his current opening, either.