Between January and July 2025, more than 1.2 million immigrants left the U.S. labor force, according to preliminary Census Bureau data analyzed by Pew Research Center. This marks the first decline in the immigrant population in decades, following a record 14 million illegals in 2023. The drop demonstrates the success of President Trump’s strengthened border security, immigration enforcement, and voluntary deportation programs.
Immigrants make up nearly 20% of the U.S. workforce, including 45% of farmworkers, 30% of construction workers, 24% of service workers, and 43% of home health aides. Their absence is reshaping agriculture, construction, and healthcare.
Liberal economists claim deportations stall job growth because immigrants “account for half of new jobs.” This is intentionally misleading. Immigrants don’t create jobs, they fill them. A construction site or farm requires a set number of workers regardless of immigration status. When liberals cite payroll declines, the argument is equally dishonest. Illegal workers are usually paid cash, under fake SSNs, or off the books. Bureau of Labor Statistics data captures only legal employment. Declining payroll figures don’t reflect jobs lost, only illegals removed.
Farmers and contractors warn of “worker shortages” and wasted crops, but what they mean is that Americans won’t work for slave wages. It is often cheaper for them to let crops rot and collect subsidies than to raise pay. By the next harvest, however, they will have to pay more. The same applies in construction or other industries claiming shortages at $5 an hour. At $20, they will find workers.
Basic economics shows that when illegals leave, jobs open to citizens and legal immigrants, and wages rise. Even if higher wages push some businesses to automate or shut down, that is how the free market is supposed to function. Inefficient models dependent on exploited labor should fail.
The claim that there are “jobs Americans won’t do” is a liberal myth. Twenty or thirty years ago, Americans worked in construction, meatpacking, hospitality, and other sectors now dominated by illegals because those jobs paid fair wages. Mass illegal immigration gave employers access to cheap labor, driving down pay and forcing Americans out.
Americans will do any job when it pays at market rates. Even seasonal farm work like fruit picking was once done by Americans when the wages were sufficient. Today, fruit picking may be one of the few exceptions, since we no longer have the old mobile workforce of hobos who followed the harvests. But nearly every other job, lawn care, construction, car washing, cleaning, was done by Americans just twenty years ago and would be again if wages had not been depressed by illegal labor. The real problem is not American unwillingness but employer refusal to pay.
When illegals are removed, wages rise to market levels and Americans take those jobs because they now provide a living wage. Some companies may automate or close if they cannot survive without cheap labor, but that is the market working as intended. Liberals argue automation will wipe out jobs, yet this actually proves the conservative point. If 100 illegal workers are deported and automation replaces 70 jobs, 30 still remain for legal workers at higher pay. The net effect is more opportunity and better wages for Americans.
Liberals also insist deportations cost $96.7 billion in lost tax revenue. That figure is deceptive. Nearly half, about $15.1 billion, comes from sales and excise taxes, which legal workers will still pay. Another $10.4 billion comes from property taxes, also unaffected. Only $7 billion, or about 21 percent, is from income taxes, and even that includes payroll contributions from fake Social Security numbers. The actual loss of legitimate income tax revenue is far smaller than advertised.
When illegals are replaced with legal workers at fair wages, income tax revenue rises sharply. A legal worker earning $20 an hour pays far more than an illegal earning $8 under the table. Payroll taxes are fully collected, and employers pay into unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation. Sales and property tax revenues remain unchanged.
The bottom line is simple. Replacing exploited illegals with fairly paid legal workers increases tax revenue, raises wages, and strengthens the labor market. The liberal “tax loss” argument collapses under basic economic scrutiny. Deportations do not destroy jobs or revenue. They restore them to American workers.
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