ICE Raids, Immigrant Workers and U.S. Employment
Photograph Source: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement – Public Domain
Under President Trump, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol raids are wreaking havoc on immigrant workers and their workplaces, according to the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH). We turn to the group’s head for a comment.
“Immigration raids are not about safety or justice,” said Jessica E. Martinez, executive director of National COSH. That’s how the president and his administration describe such raids. A case in point is border “czar” Tom Homan, suggesting that masked ICE agents are apprehending “the worst of the worst.”
That negative characterization of immigrant workers as targets of ICE raids is crafted to spark fear and hatred of them. It is a rhetoric of divide and rule. Driving a wedge between immigrant and native-born workers has intended and unintended consequences.
Martinez continues her criticism of the ICE raids. “They are intentional tactics to undermine workers’ safety and rights and embolden employers to violate labor laws by silencing workers. We cannot allow ICE enforcement to become a weapon that strips workers of their rights and dignity.”
Employers can and do violate the rights and safety of immigrant workers as a way to cut costs for their labor services. Employers can and do pursue similar workplace violations of native-born workers. They, in contrast to immigrant workers, have more political protection.
Thus, native-born workers are better able to push back against employers who break the law for reasons of gaining market share and profits. This daily struggle between employers and employees undergirds the administration’s use of ICE raids to keep immigrant workers down and divided from native-born workers.
That is not all. ICE raids decrease the number of immigrant workers due to their deportation and incarceration. The U.S. economy relies on immigrant workers in key industries such as agriculture, home health care and construction. Reducing their labor force participation is, for starters, slowing job creation to a crawl.
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2025/
Ben Zipperer is a senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, DC.
According to his research, “If the administration follows through on its goals of deporting 4 million people over four years, there will be 3.3 million fewer employed immigrants and 2.6 million fewer employed U.S.-born workers at the end of that period.
“Employment in the construction sector will drop sharply: U.S.-born construction employment will fall by 861,000, and immigrant employment will fall by 1.4 million. The deportations will eliminate half a million child care jobs.”
The slowdown in job creation harms immigrant and native-born workers. A slowing economy, in part from ICE raids on immigrant workers, has impacts that affect them but also native-born workers. This outcome, or unintended consequence, points to the class similarities between the two groups of workers in the U.S.
The working majority that depends on labor income to buy the necessities of life—food, fuel and shelter—has much in common. Differences in national origin don’t eliminate the similar class position of the U.S. workforce. This point is crucial to the material well-being of the working class stateside.
“We will not be silent,” said Martinez. “Every ICE raid is an attack on all workers. These dangerous tactics must end now—our health, safety, and dignity are on the line.”
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