Trump’s immigration plans mean slow growth of U.S. labor force: WSJ

NEW YORK, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) — Immigration has been a key source of growth in the labor force and jobs in recent years in the United States, and President-elect Donald Trump’s plans are almost certain to slow that source of growth, reported The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Thursday.
Employment has grown an average of 170,000 jobs a month this year. Depending on exactly how Trump plans to clamp down on illegal immigration and deport unauthorized migrants, independent estimates suggest that growth could be reduced by 25,000 to 100,000 jobs next year, according to the report.
Since 2021, immigration has added around 10 million people to the U.S. population, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates. Less than one-third came into the country legally on immigrant visas, work or student visas, or as refugees. Many of the rest crossed the border without authorization or overstayed their visas, often requesting to stay on humanitarian grounds once they had entered.
Even before this historic migration surge, there were about 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the country as of 2022, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The undocumented population includes roughly 3 million “Dreamers,” who were brought to the United States as children and grew up here, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
“The presence of these migrants has fed controversy over U.S. immigration and border policies and was a major factor in Trump’s election victory last month. Nonetheless, the newcomers play a significant role in the economy,” said the report.
Trump has promised to “stop the invasion” of unauthorized migrants and to launch “the largest deportation operation in the history of our country.” He has provided few specifics as to how he would achieve either goal, but the president has broad authority to restrict many of the pathways that immigrants have used to enter the country in recent years, it added. ■