It’s tomato season, and Lydia harvests on a farm in the Central Valley of California.
She’s worried too. Notes from US immigration and customs enforcement She was able to overturn her life more than 23 years after she illegally crossed the US-Mexican border as a teenager.
“My worries are to attract you when you’re driving and ask for your paper,” Lydia said. “We need to work. We need to support our families and pay rent.”
A parade and other events celebrate the contributions of American workers will be held on Monday. Labor Day Holidayexperts say President Donald Trump’s strengthened immigration policy is affecting it The country’s labor force.
On Thursday, July 10th, 2025, demonstrators kneel in front of federal agents on the farm during an immigration raid in Camarillo, California (AP Photo/Michael Owen Baker, File)
From January to the end of July, more than 1.2 million immigrants disappeared from the workforce. Preliminary Census Bureau data analyzed by the Pew Research Center. That includes people who are illegally in the country as well as legal residents.
Immigration accounts for almost 20% of the US workforce, and the data shows that 45% of farming, fishing and forestry workers are immigrants, according to senior Pew researcher Stephanie Kramer. Approximately 30% of all construction workers are immigrants, and 24% of service workers are immigrants, she added.
The loss of migrant workers is because the population is seeing the first decline in immigrants overall after the number of Americans accidentally hit an all-time high of 14 million in 2023.
“It is unclear how much of the decline we’ve seen since January is due to voluntary departures to pursue other opportunities or avoid deportation, withdrawal, underreporting, or other technical issues,” Kramer said. “However, we don’t think the decline is a reality as the preliminary figures showing net-negative migration aren’t that far away.”
Trump I exercised on promise Deports millions of immigrants who work illegally in the United States. He says he is focusing his efforts on “dangerous criminals”; Most people were detained on ice There are no criminal convictions. At the same time, the number of illegal border intersections plunged under his policy.
Pier Ornius, a labor economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, said immigrants usually donate at least 50% of U.S. employment growth
“The cross-border influx is essentially stopped because of what we can convey. It’s where we’ve gained millions of immigrants over the past four years,” she said. “It had a huge impact on our ability to create jobs.”
“The crops were wasted.”
Crossing the border from Mexico in McAllen, Texas, corn and cotton fields are ready for harvest. Elizabeth Rodriguez is not available to sufficient workers for gin and other machines once the fields are cleaned up.
Rodriguez, director of farm worker advocacy at the National Farm Workers Department, said he has suspended immigration enforcement measures at farms, businesses and construction sites.
Immigrant farm workers choose vegetables early in the morning in Fresno, California on July 18, 2025.
Teresa Lomero, president of United Farm Worker, will speak at a press conference at Barrett Vineyard in Santa Rosa, California on April 26, 2024 (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
“In May, during the peak of the watermelon and melon season, it was delayed. A lot of the crop wasted,” she said.
In Ventura County, Northwest California, Los Angeles, Lisatate manages a family business that grows citrus, avocados and coffee on eight ranches and 800 acres (323 hectares).
Most of the men and women working on farms are day workers provided by contractors. This year there were days when the crew was smaller. Tate is hesitant to blame immigration policies. But fear Ice attack It will spread out quickly.
Dozens of local farm workers have been arrested Late this spring.
“People were being taken from the side of the road from the laundry,” Tate said.
Farm worker Lydia, who spoke to the Associated Press through an interpreter, said her biggest fear was being sent back to Mexico. Currently 36 years old, she is married to three school-age children born here.
“I don’t know if I can take my kids,” Lydia said. “I’m also very worried about having to start from scratch. My life was in the US.”
From construction to healthcare
McAllen and the surrounding construction sites are also “completely dead,” Rodriguez said.
“We have a large, undocumented workforce,” she said. “We’ve seen ice that are specifically targeting construction sites and are trying to target mechanics and repair shops.”
The number of construction jobs has declined in about half of the US metropolitan areas, according to related general contractors related to analyzing government employment data. The biggest loss of 7,200 jobs was in the Riverside San Bernardino Ontario area, California. The Beach Glendale area in Los Angeles Long lost 6,200 jobs.
Federal immigration agents throw tear gas at protesters during an attack in the agricultural area of Camarillo, California on Thursday, July 10, 2025 (AP Photo/Michael Owen Baker, File)
Ken Simonson, Chief Economist of the Association, said: “However, contractors report that they will only hire more people if more qualified, motivated workers and strict immigration enforcement do not disrupt the labor supply.”
Kramer with Pew also warns of potential healthcare impacts. She says immigrants make up about 43% of home health aides.
Service Employees International Union represents approximately 2 million workers in healthcare, the public sector and real estate services. An estimated half of long-term care workers, who are members of California’s SEIU 2015, are immigrants, said local president Arnulfo de La Cruz.
“What happens when millions of Americans can no longer find a home care provider?” De La Cruz said. “What happens when immigrants aren’t on the scene to choose our crops? Who goes to staff at our hospitals and nursing homes?” ___A previous version of this story misrepresented the names of US immigration and customs enforcement agencies. The name is not immigration management and enforcement.
