How ICE crackdowns are affecting the workforce

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 July 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

The Trump administration's crackdown on immigrants might be the most profound change in the American labor market right now. Industries that rely on immigrant labor are especially vulnerable, as ICE continues to raid businesses believed to have unauthorized workers.

Today on the show, we talk to representatives from the agriculture, construction and long-term care industries to ask: Are people still showing up to work?

Related episodes:
What's missing in the immigration debate
Is the 'border crisis' actually a 'labor market crisis?'

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR.
0:01.0	This is The Indicator from Planet Money.
0:13.6	I'm Adrian Ma.
0:14.6	And I'm Darren Woods, and it is Jobs Thursday.
0:20.1	That is right, Jobs Thursday for the, I think, the first time, right?
0:23.4	The first Jobs Thursday I've been involved with, for sure.
0:25.4	Yeah.
0:26.4	In maybe several years, because our typical jobs Friday episode falls on the July 4th
0:32.4	holiday.
0:33.4	So we're bringing you our look at the labor market just a day early.
0:36.6	Today we learned that the US economy added 147,000 jobs in June.
0:41.4	The unemployment rate decreased a little to 4.1%.
0:44.5	It's a solid report.
0:46.7	And it comes right as House representatives are voting on the big bill that will give a huge funding boost to immigration enforcement.
0:55.0	The Trump administration's crackdown on immigrants might be the most profound change in the American labor market right now.
1:01.0	So for today's show, we are profiling three industries,
1:05.0	areas that employ large shares of people from abroad, agriculture, construction, and long-term care.
1:12.6	Our question, are immigrants showing up for work?
1:16.6	When you bite into your summer cherries, they might have been picked by Gloria.
1:26.6	She's a cherry picker in Washington State.
1:28.3	We start at six in the morning.
1:31.3	We leave at midnight one in the morning.
	...

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