By admin 
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — ICE raids and undocumented immigrant crackdowns have swept cities across the country.
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President Trump has said the mass deportations will create thousands of new jobs for U.S.-born workers. But a new study on the impact ICE enforcement is having on the labor market tells a different story.
Chloe East is an economics professor at the University of Colorado and co-author of the “Labor Market Impacts of ICE.”
“The key finding from our study is that, contrary to political promises what we are actually seeing is that heightened ICE activity in the second Trump Administration is hurting labor market and hurting U.S.-born workers especially in sectors that have historically been reliant in immigrant labor,” East said.
The National Bureau of Economic Research report states there has been a significant drop in the number of people working in the construction industry, and that includes American-born workers.
Lane Boland is the owner of SKA Homes in Arizona. He said construction companies nationwide are all dealing with a shortage of skilled labor, and what has made things worse is that all the jobs being created by the ICE raids are not being taken by American workers because they do not pay enough.
“When your typical labor starts at $16-$20, and that person can get $17-$20 starting at McDonald’s or Chipotle, why would they kill their back out in baking sun,” Boland said.
“The construction prices are going to have to rise so that employers can afford to attract these people from other non-college-educated workforce into construction,” he said.
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Boland said employers are reluctant to increase wages because it will force them to increase the cost of homes and buildings, and in today’s economic climate, that is not ideal.
According to the study, construction companies are choosing to take on fewer projects, which means less hiring for everyone, including U.S. workers.
“The ICE raids, sure it created more jobs, but they are not being filled because we’re not able to pay them enough to attract those American born workers. It’s mind blowing,” Boland said.
Some contractors have said immigration enforcement is leveling the playing field by not allowing unlicensed companies to undercut them on a contract.
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