Economic Risks From Shrinking Immigrant Workforce

A recent jobs report highlights a growing risk to U.S. economic growth from declining immigration and labor force participation. Though unemployment remains low, over 735,000 foreign-born workers have left the workforce since January. Experts, including Fed Chair Jerome Powell, blame restrictive immigration policies — mass deportations, parole terminations, and refugee bans — for the slowdown. Sectors like healthcare face severe staffing shortages as work authorizations disappear. Research also challenges the idea that cutting immigrant labor boosts wages, showing wage growth has slowed in industries once reliant on immigrant workers.