https://sputnikglobe.com/20250127/with-illegals-gone-americans-grocery-bills-home-prices-could-skyrocket-1121507998.html
With Illegals Gone, Americans’ Grocery Bills, Home Prices Could Skyrocket
With Illegals Gone, Americans’ Grocery Bills, Home Prices Could Skyrocket
Sputnik International
Donald Trump has begun to make good on his campaign promises to «fix» America’s «broken» immigration policy, deploying the military to the southern border, suspending refugee admissions pending a review, redefining birthright citizenship, resuming border wall construction and empowering federal and state agencies with new deportation powers.
2025-01-27T19:08+0000
2025-01-27T19:08+0000
2025-01-27T19:08+0000
americas
paul krugman
us
donald trump
ronald reagan
federal reserve bank
us department of agriculture (usda)
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But Trump’s crackdown on undocumented aliens could come with major economic consequences, ex-Reagan advisor and Federal Reserve Bank of New York consultant Paul Krugman predicts.With around 5% of the US workforce made up of illegals, “losing a large fraction of these workers would be a serious blow to the economy,” Krugman wrote in a Substack post Monday.In agriculture, “immigrants – many of them undocumented – make up most of the farm labor force,” Krugman noted, pointing to USDA figures showing that over 40% of hired crop farmworkers are undocumented.Same goes for construction, Krugman believes, pointing to industry stats showing that immigrants make up a majority of plasterers, masons, drywall installers, and a substantial share of painters, roofers, general laborers and hazardous waste removers.A 2024 American University study estimated that immigrants, both legal and illegal, contributed over $2.2 trillion to the US economy. Major corporations and small business alike prefer foreign-born workers for being cheaper, with illegals not enjoying the same worker protections, and under-the-table payments meaning no access to health insurance.Before Trump’s election in 2016, quiet encouragement of illegal immigration was a bipartisan affair, even as conservative Republicans criticized the policy’s impact on wages for Americans, and costs to the tax base they generate, and the crime and drug issues associated with the lack of adequate border protections.
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will food and home prices rise with illegal immigrants gone, will trump deport illegal aliens
will food and home prices rise with illegal immigrants gone, will trump deport illegal aliens
Donald Trump has begun to make good on his campaign promises to «fix» America’s «broken» immigration policy, deploying the military to the southern border, suspending refugee admissions pending a review, redefining birthright citizenship, resuming border wall construction and empowering federal and state agencies with new deportation powers.
But Trump’s crackdown on undocumented aliens could come with major economic consequences, ex-Reagan advisor and Federal Reserve Bank of New York consultant Paul Krugman predicts.
In agriculture, “immigrants – many of them undocumented – make up most of the farm labor force,” Krugman noted, pointing to USDA figures showing that over 40% of hired crop farmworkers are undocumented.
“Push those workers out, either by actual deportation or detention or simply by creating a climate of fear, and just watch what happens to grocery prices,” the economist suggested.
Same goes for construction, Krugman believes, pointing to industry stats showing that immigrants make up a majority of plasterers, masons, drywall installers, and a substantial share of painters, roofers, general laborers and hazardous waste removers.
“So at a time when Americans are still angry about the price of groceries and, with more justification, about the unaffordability of housing, Trump’s immigrant crackdown seems set to hobble food production and home construction,” the economist wrote.
