Letters: Deportations do not help U.S.-born workers

The Trump administration has intensified deportation efforts. The number of deportations in 2026 is expected to climb to more than 450,000, up from about 320,000 last year. And the president’s budget request for the Department of Homeland Security for 2027 is $118.4 billion.

One might think that removing undocumented immigrant workers from the labor market would benefit the remaining U.S.-born workers.

That is not necessarily so. Recent research (“Labor Market Impacts of Ice Activity in Trump 2.0,” Elizabeth Cox, Chloe N. East, National Bureau of Economic Research) has studied the impact of deportations on native-born workers. Deportation rates versus employment statistics were compared across states from October 2023 to October 2025.

We might expect deportations of immigrants to lead to higher employment for U.S.-born workers. But the data show no positive effect on total employment, on total hours worked or on wages of U.S.-born workers.

Conclusion: Deportations do not benefit U.S.-born workers.

And worse, for male workers, deportations have a negative impact on employment. For U.S.-born workers with a high school degree or less, deportations produce a significant decline in the employment rate, the research showed. For every six undocumented male workers lost, one male U.S.-born worker was lost.

This is a high price to pay considering all of the other fiscal, ethical and emotional costs of deportation.

—Jon Vickers, Bloomington