President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to mass deport illegal aliens will force up United States wages as employers are unable to rely on cheaper foreign workers, a new report suggests.
A report from CalMatters, a California-based nonprofit news organization, admits that employers will have to pay more for labor as a result of mass deportations because foreign workers are cheaper to hire than their American counterparts.
CalMatters reports:
Mass deportations promised by President-elect Donald Trump could have a seismic economic effect in California — potentially inflicting billions of dollars in direct damages to a wide range of industries, including small business, agriculture, construction and child care, advocates and academics said.
[Emphasis added]…
It could be costly to replace those who are deported. In the construction industry, for example, the median weekly earnings of full-time, U.S.-born workers as of 2020 were $1,031 vs. $786 for foreign-born workers, according to an analysis by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In California, the median hourly wage as of 2021 was $30 an hour for U.S.-born workers vs. $24 an hour for immigrant workers vs. $16 an hour for undocumented workers, according to the California Immigrant Data Portal, a project by the Equity Research Institute at USC, which is directed by Pastor. [Emphasis added]
The fact that employers tend to pay foreign workers, particularly illegal aliens, less than Americans is partly why the California Chamber of Commerce is opposing Trump’s mass deportation program.
Instead, the Chamber is lobbying for amnesty for the nation’s 11 to 22 million illegal aliens. President Jennifer Barrera said:
It is no secret that undocumented workers greatly contribute to California’s economy given our geographical proximity to the border, which is why CalChamber has been a long-time supporter of a national comprehensive effort that provides a pathway to citizenship or legal status for these individuals while at the same time addressing border security.
Already, Breitbart News reported, construction industry bosses are complaining that mass deportations under Trump will take away many of their illegally employed foreign workers.
Trump and Vice President-Elect JD Vance have long argued for a tightened labor market where employers have to compete for employees rather than employees competing for scarce jobs.
Fierce enforcement of federal immigration law, Trump and Vance say, is a critical component in protecting the labor market for Americans so they do not have to compete against cheaper foreign workers who are often illegally in the U.S.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
