President Donald Trump’s deportation campaign has been massively successful, not only in removing violent criminals from the country but also in increasing the wages of American workers.
The Trump administration has deployed a “two-track plan” for deportations, as noted by immigration expert Andrew Arthur in the New York Post.
Track one involves deporting illegal aliens with criminal records, primarily through Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. That includes deporting more than 60,000 illegal aliens who have “convictions or charges for 9,639 assaults, 6,398 DWIs or DUIs, and 1,479 weapon offenses,” according to an April 29 statement from ICE.
Track two is “self-deportation,” where illegal aliens are offered $1,000 to voluntarily leave and prove they have left using the rebranded Customs and Border Patrol app, “CBP One.” Previously, the Biden administration used this app to allow illegal immigrants to easily enter the country with a simple click of a button.
If illegal aliens self-deport, they may still be able to enter the country legally at a later date. If they remain and are deported by ICE, however, they are permanently barred from legal residency in the United States. A deportation normally costs $17,000, so the self-deportation approach also saves taxpayer dollars.
Thanks to nearly one million illegal immigrants leaving under this program, wages for American workers rose in March, a point even the liberal Washington Post admitted. “Average hourly wages accelerated, rising by 0.4 percent over the month, to $36.24 in May, as earnings continue to beat inflation in a boost to workers’ spending power,” the newspaper reported on June 6.
While the Washington Post neglected to report on the correlation between deportations and rising wages, immigration experts were quick to make the connection. “In other words, with fewer illegal immigrants, businesses have had to raise wages to attract workers,” Andrew Arthur wrote in the New York Post.
Anecdotal evidence also supports the theory that deportations are directly benefitting American workers. In mid-June, immigration authorities raided Glenn Valley Foods in Omaha, Nebraska, due to a high number of illegal aliens working at the company. NBC News called the enforcement action “the state’s largest worksite immigration raid.” 76 people were arrested as part of the raid, according to NBC News.
But that raid is already paying off for American workers, as even NBC admitted in the first sentence of its report. “Every seat in the waiting area of Glenn Valley Foods was occupied with people filling out job applications early Thursday afternoon,” the outlet reported. Furthermore, “dozens of prospective employees” were seen “coming in and out of the plant all day.”
Despite this apparent boon for American workers, however, some industries are pressuring the White House to avoid deporting illegal alien workers and only remove those with criminal records. There are some signs that this pressure campaign is having its intended effect, as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) briefly announced earlier this month it would “temporarily pause immigration enforcement at farms, restaurants, and hotels,” according to Straight Arrow News.
The decision came after Trump wrote on Truth Social that “our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace.” That would amount to amnesty for two million illegal immigrants, according to an article in the National Review by Jason Richwine, an immigration expert.
However, DHS soon clarified there would be “no safe spaces” when it comes to enforcement, and Trump later followed up with more posts suggesting that deportations would continue as planned.
Still, the brief hesitation exposed rifts even among some conservatives, despite clear evidence that deportations help raise wages for American-born workers.
While trade groups and employers will argue that they “need” illegal alien workers, evidence clearly shows that American workers are harmed by allowing mass numbers of migrants to drive down wages. “Currently, illegal immigrants’ willingness to work for below-market pay drags down wages for domestic workers, deterring those who would otherwise seek such positions,” Alexander Frei, a researcher with the Heritage Foundation, argued in January.
He noted that “research suggests that Mr. Trump’s work to decrease illegal immigration in his first term coincided with a 3.2% real increase in median weekly wages for U.S.-born workers without a bachelor’s degree.”
American workers also benefit the economy more than illegal immigrants, who may be wary of buying a home or making long-term investments in the country due to justified fear of deportation.
Immigrants, both legal and illegal, send $150 billion out of the country annually, taking money from the United States to send to places like Guatemala and El Salvador, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Instead of sending their earnings out of the country, American workers spend it here.
Trump’s deportation agenda, coupled with deregulation and his tariff plans, are boosting the economy and helping hardworking Americans. He should keep going, no matter what the c-suite executives and well-heeled lobbyists say.
Matt Lamb is an AMAC Newsline contributor and an associate editor for The College Fix. He previously worked for Students for Life of America, Students for Life Action, and Turning Point USA. He previously interned for Open the Books. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Examiner, The Federalist, LifeSiteNews, Human Life Review, Headline USA, and other outlets. The opinions expressed are his own. Follow him @mattlamb22 on X.
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