It’s peak tomato season in California’s Central Valley, and Lidia is out in the fields picking fruit. But her mind isn’t just on the harvest—it’s on the possibility that immigration agents could show
up and change her life in an instant.
Lidia crossed the U.S.-Mexico border as a teenager more than two decades ago. Now 36, married, and raising three U.S.-born children, she still lives with the constant fear of deportation.
“The worry is they’ll pull you over when you’re driving and ask for your papers,” she said. “We need to work. We need to feed our families and pay our rent.”
As Americans mark Labor Day with parades and barbecues, new data highlights how much the U.S. workforce is being reshaped by immigration crackdowns under President Donald Trump.
According to preliminary Census Bureau data analyzed by the Pew Research Center, more than 1.2 million immigrants have dropped out of the labor force between January and July. That includes both undocumented workers and legal residents.
Immigrants make up nearly 1 in 5 U.S. workers, and their absence is being felt most in industries that rely heavily on them—farm work, construction, and health care.
Stephanie Kramer, a senior researcher at Pew, noted that almost half of all farmworkers, fishers, and foresters are immigrants, along with 30% of construction workers and 24% of service workers.
For the first time in years, the overall immigrant population in the U.S. is shrinking, after peaking at about 14 million undocumented residents in 2023.
“It’s still unclear how much of the drop is from people leaving voluntarily, deportations, or reporting issues,” Kramer said. “But we’re confident the decline is real.”
Trump, who campaigned on mass deportations, insists his policies target “dangerous criminals.” Yet most people detained by ICE have no criminal records. At the same time, illegal border crossings have plunged.
That shift is already showing up in the economy. Pia Orrenius, a labor economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, said immigrants typically fuel at least half of U.S. job growth.
“The influx across the border has essentially stopped,” she explained. “That’s had a huge impact on the ability to create jobs.”
‘Crops Did Go to Waste’
In McAllen, Texas, fields of corn and cotton are ready for harvest. But Elizabeth Rodriguez, who works with the National Farmworker Ministry, worries there aren’t enough people to run the equipment once crops are picked.
She said immigration raids earlier this year left farms scrambling.
“In May, during peak watermelon and cantaloupe season, harvests were delayed,” Rodriguez said. “A lot of crops did go to waste.”
California farmers are feeling the same squeeze. Lisa Tate, who helps run her family’s 800-acre ranches northwest of Los Angeles, said smaller work crews and ICE sweeps have rattled the industry.
“People were being taken out of laundromats, off the side of the road,” Tate said.
Construction and Health Care Also Hit
It’s not just agriculture. Construction jobs are disappearing in many cities as enforcement actions ripple through job sites.
McAllen’s once-busy projects are “completely dead,” Rodriguez said. “We’ve seen ICE targeting construction sites and even mechanic shops.”
Government data shows construction employment falling in nearly half of U.S. metro areas, with Southern California losing the most jobs.
“If contractors could find qualified workers, they’d hire,” said Ken Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America. “But immigration crackdowns are making that nearly impossible.”
And the impact could soon spread to health care. Pew data shows 43% of home health aides are immigrants, many of them providing care for elderly and disabled Americans.
“What happens when immigrants aren’t there to pick crops or staff nursing homes?” asked Arnulfo De La Cruz, president of SEIU 2015, which represents hundreds of thousands of long-term care workers in California. “Millions of Americans will feel it directly.” Photo by Amyyfory, Wikimedia commons.