How CA ICE Raids Could Affect The State's Economy: Reports

CALIFORNIA — The recent immigration raids in California could affect the state and national economies in several ways, according to recent reports.

“The reality is that the U.S. economy is largely today dependent upon foreign-born labor — and in California more so,” Nicholas Eberstadt, a political economist with the American Enterprise Institute, told the Los Angeles Times.

“For the country as a whole, we’re getting towards 1 out of 5 jobs being filled currently by somebody who was born abroad. In California, it’s more like 1 in 3.”

Foreign-born Golden State residents make up roughly 40 percent of home healthcare and daycare workers, nearly 50 percent of trucking and lodging workers, and 60 percent of landscaping workers, according to the Times, which noted that a Home Depot in Paramount where casual laborers go to find work was among the places recently targeted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The raids are expected to instill fear and prevent laborers from congregating publicly, with the absence of workers increasing costs, Dean Baker, a senior economist for the Center for Economic and Policy Research, told the Times.

“People are afraid to go to work. Entire sectors of the economy will slow, and there will be workforce crises,” National Domestic Workers Alliance President Ai-jen Poo told Marketplace.

Fewer workers also means fewer consumers, and a decrease in the workforce can make it harder for businesses to expand, according to Marketplace.

“Immigration enforcement does not help U.S. workers, it does not open up jobs,” Daniel Costa, the Economic Policy Institute’s director of immigration law and policy research, told Marketplace. “There’s no evidence that that happens.”