US workers say Trump's immigration crackdown is causing labor shortages: 'A strain on everybody'
Source: The Guardian
Tue 29 Jul 2025 07.00 EDT
Last modified on Tue 29 Jul 2025 07.01 EDT
Donald Trumps crackdown on immigration is piling pressure on US factories, according to employees and union leaders, as veteran workers from overseas are forced to leave their jobs. As economists warn the administrations full-scale deportation ambitions could ultimately cost millions of jobs, workers at two sites in Michigan and Kentucky told the Guardian that industrial giants are grappling with labor shortages.
The US president has moved to strip more than a million immigrants of their legal status in the US, including by shutting down the Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans (CHNV) Parole Program, which allowed hundreds of thousands to work legally in the country. It has meanwhile ramped up immigration arrest operations with prospective daily quotas of 3,000 arrests per day. Such moves have piled pressure on industries across the US economy including the food, hospitality, construction, transportation and care sectors which rely on large numbers of migrants to do essential work.
At a GE Appliances plant in Louisville, Kentucky, more than 125 workers were abruptly forced out of their jobs in the spring due to programs cancelled as part of Trumps immigration crackdown, according to an employee. GE Appliances makes home appliances including refrigerators, microwaves and dishwashers.
In three different buildings, on a couple of different shifts, stewards reported that they lost production so they werent able to make all the products they were supposed to make, said Jess Reese, a replacement operator at the plant and organizer for IUE-CWA Local 83761.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/29/trump-immigration-crackdown-labor-shortages-slowdowns

twodogsbarking
(14,637 posts)speaking people in this house"? I answer "no, but my daughter took two years in high school". ICE "we are taking your daughter and deporting her, where is she, the attic?" "Yes, I respond, how did you know?"
Are we there yet? (Bart Simpson voice).
Bayard
(26,169 posts)trump espouses keeping jobs in the U.S., then interferes with companies production by taking their workers.
Nigrum Cattus
(759 posts)The price of building anything is going to increase big time.
Commercial and home labor costs account for 3/4 of
the cost. The younger generation has been trained on
computers, not hammers, saws, etc. Commercial robots
cost hundred of thousands of $$. Just another brink in the wall
Buddyzbuddy
(1,241 posts)I just left our local market where I saw 2 senior citizens age 75+ retrieving shopping carts as part of their job. It's probably going to be 90+ degrees today.
AMERICA, LAND OF THE FREE, HOME OF THE BRAVE
Ray Bruns
(5,447 posts)
republianmushroom
(20,789 posts)Calista241
(5,631 posts)A labor shortage will spur an increase in salary / pay requirements as companies struggle to hire.