The mass expulsion of illegal immigrants risks having a “significant” impact on prices in the United States, the Cato Institute has warned.
US President-elect Donald Trump has promised to organize the “largest deportation operation in history” against the “tens of millions” of immigrants living illegally in the United States.
“The economic repercussions are certainly going to be felt,” said David J. Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute.
“There will be problems with supply chains. There will be price increases and reductions in services,” underlined this expert from the Washington-based think tank.
Economists fear the impact of the mass expulsion of large numbers of undocumented immigrants on the country’s workforce.
According to a 2023 study published in the Journal of Labor Economics, nearly 44,000 U.S.-born workers could lose their jobs for every 500,000 immigrants removed from the labor force.
“Immigrants, especially illegal immigrants, are much more likely to work in jobs that create the goods and services whose prices rise,” noted Chloe East, a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, who contributed to this study. study.
“Based on what we know from past experiences of mass deportation, it appears that goods and services where undocumented immigrants are highly concentrated, such as construction and agriculture, are likely to see their prices increase,” he said. -she affirmed.
To manage the immigration file, Trump appointed one of the hardliners, Tom Homan, to head the agency responsible for border control and immigration (ICE).
This “border czar”, a position he already held during Trump’s first term in the White House, advocates a policy of “zero tolerance” towards illegal immigration.
About 11 million undocumented immigrants were in the United States in 2022, according to estimates from the Pew Research Center.
With MAP
