Trump Promises Changes as Migrant Crackdown Depletes Workforce [View all]

Source: Bloomberg

June 12, 2025 at 10:12 AM EDT
Updated on June 12, 2025 at 11:40 AM EDT


President Donald Trump conceded that his immigration crackdown was hurting US businesses and said policy changes will be made to address worker shortages. “Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming,” he said.

The post seemed to mark a rare acknowledgment by Trump about risks to the world’s biggest economy as he seeks to ramp up deportations. Data last week showed the size of the US workforce shrunk in May, in part because of the biggest back-to-back decline in the number of foreign-born workers in the labor force since 2020.

“There is a growing concern around the current administration’s immigration policies” and the ripple effects it will have across the labor market, Aaron Jagdfeld, chief executive officer of Generac Holdings Inc., said in an interview last week, before Trump’s post. His Waukesha, Wisconsin-based company makes backup power equipment for residents and businesses. Companies that lose access to workers here on special exemption visas ultimately “have to hire people who are working for us, right?” Jagdfeld said.

Trump’s move also comes amid growing pushback over Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. Protests that began in the LA area — where more than 600 people have been arrested and demonstrators clashed with police — have spread to cities including Austin, Chicago and New York. In LA, the unrest was mostly confined to parts of downtown and nearby suburbs, but it drew a forceful response from Trump, who deployed National Guard troops and Marines to the city.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-12/trump-says-his-deportation-drive-is-sparking-concerns-over-jobs?srnd=homepage-americas