How deportations hurt male employment..males are 90% of immigration arrests

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

Trump’s Deportations Are Costing Americans Jobs


Analyzing federal labor data, researchers focused on four industries that rely heavily on undocumented immigrant workers: agriculture, construction, manufacturing and wholesale. Deportations had a chilling effect on each of those industries, disproportionately affecting men, who accounted for more than 90 percent of the immigration arrests. Taken together, the affected industries saw a 5 percent drop in employment for male undocumented workers and a 1.3 percent drop for male American-born workers without a college degree.

The researchers found no evidence that employers increased wages to attract American workers. Instead, work slowed.
In construction — where the researchers estimated 15 percent of the work force is undocumented — American-born workers have paid a price for the deportations, the study found: Employment dropped by 3 percent for male American-born workers without a college degree, and 7.5 percent for undocumented workers. For each arrest, six American-born workers lost a job, and four undocumented workers lost one.

“Construction companies view it as easier to reduce production, reduce the construction of new homes and new buildings in general, rather than try to increase wages for U.S.-born workers,” said Chloe East, an author of the study and an economics professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder.


At the State of the Union address in February, President Trump claimed that thousands of new construction jobs had been created, saying, “More Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country.” In a news release earlier this year, the White House argued that the construction industry that had benefited from the deportations.

But the residential construction industry has been slowing. Permits for new housing units were down 7.4 percent year-over-year in March 2026, to 1.372 million units, according to the census. In April 2026, residential construction jobs were down 1.5 percent year-over-year, according to federal jobs data.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/19/realestate/trumps-deportations-are-costing-americans-jobs.html

[truddy777]

1. Labor math is ugly

People act like whole industries run on magic until workers disappear overnight. Construction slowing down while housing is already insane expensive is not exactly shocking.

[Melon]

3. I'm not 100% following the math there

We all know that housing has slowed due to the economy. It’s says housing starts were down 1.5% but non college degree males down 1.3%. Would that not be job creation of .2% for that group?

I think much of this was planned to coincide with the slowing economy. Much the same as tightening H1 visas at the same time we are having layoffs in tech from AI being used in coding. The slowing economy covers this up. We likely would have seen a natural return of a lot of immigrants in a slowing economy without spending millions on ICE.

[MichMan]

4. Perhaps if there was actual enforcement against employers for hiring undocumented workers, they would increase wages

and hire legal workers.