The Labor Shortage They Created
How Anti-Immigrant Policies Backfire on the Economy
For years, Donald Trump has framed immigration as a threat: to jobs, to public safety, to American identity. He promises in his second term to double down on deportations, restrict legal immigration even further, and crack down on undocumented workers with harsher penalties.
But reality paints a different picture.
The truth is that immigrants—documented and undocumented—form the backbone of key sectors of the U.S. economy. From agriculture and construction to hospitality and elder care, immigrant labor isn’t displacing American workers—it’s filling essential jobs Americans are unwilling or unable to take.
Aggressive anti-immigrant policies don’t solve economic problems. They create them.
Florida’s Immigration Crackdown: A Cautionary Tale
In 2023, Florida enacted one of the harshest immigration laws in the country (SB1718), championed by Governor Ron DeSantis and praised by Trump allies. It included steep fines for businesses hiring undocumented workers, invalidation of out-of-state driver’s licenses for immigrants, and mandatory use of E-Verify.
The results were swift—and disastrous:
Labor shortages hit agriculture, construction, and hospitality industries almost immediately.
Crops were left rotting in the fields as migrant workers fled the state, fearful of arrest or harassment.
Farmers and contractors scrambled to find replacements—and couldn’t.
A Florida strawberry farm owner put it bluntly: “A lot of people went north and never came back.”
This wasn’t a surprise. Economists and business leaders had warned for months that the bill would gut Florida’s economy. A 2023 report from the American Business Immigration Coalition estimated that the law could cost Florida’s economy over $12 billion in losses【source: ABIC】.
Georgia’s Self-Inflicted Harvest Crisis
Florida’s experience echoed what happened in Georgia more than a decade earlier. In 2011, Georgia passed strict anti-immigration legislation aimed at forcing undocumented workers out of the state.
It worked—and crippled the agricultural sector. Farmers couldn’t find enough legal workers to replace the lost labor force. One estimate from the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association found that crops worth hundreds of millions of dollars were left unharvested.
The state briefly tried to solve the crisis by encouraging unemployed U.S. citizens to take the jobs. Few showed up—and those who did often quit after a single day, finding the grueling farm labor too physically demanding for low pay.
The Bigger Problem: America’s Demographic Reality
Trump and his allies talk about immigration as if the U.S. labor market has an endless supply of willing workers. It doesn’t.
The reality is:
Birth rates are falling. The U.S. is not replacing its population fast enough.
Native-born workers are aging out. More Americans are retiring every year.
Hard labor jobs—harvesting crops, roofing houses, cleaning hotel rooms—are ones many Americans don’t want.
Without immigrant workers, industries from food production to construction grind to a halt. Prices rise. Economic growth slows. And rural economies, in particular, suffer.
Anti-immigrant crackdowns don’t bring back jobs for American citizens. They leave critical jobs unfilled, driving up costs for everyone and hollowing out key sectors of the economy.
The Dangerous Path Ahead
If Trump follows through on his mass-deportation agenda in a second term, the economic damage will spread far beyond farms and hotels. It will ripple across supply chains, into grocery stores, housing markets, and small businesses across the country.
America doesn’t need fewer immigrants. It needs immigration reform that recognizes the economic reality—and builds a system that supports workers, employers, and families alike.
Punitive crackdowns won’t make America stronger. They’ll make it weaker, poorer, and less able to compete in a global economy.
Up Next
Labor shortages are just one symptom.
Tomorrow, let’s look at how authoritarian overreach threatens justice, civil rights, and the rule of law in America.