Image source, Getty Images
Víctor Morán, director of a cleaning company of 1,200 employees in Maryland, carefully examines each new employee to ensure that they are authorized to work in the United States.
President Donald Trump's offensive against immigrants begins to reduce his workers' workforce.
Some 15 people have left their company, Total Quality, since the president won a legal battle to strip the immigrants of Venezuela and Nicaragua of the temporal protections that avoid deportation, he says.
If the White House extends its efforts, it could lose hundreds of its workers, which depend on similar work permits and would be difficult to replace.
Similar concerns resonate in companies from all over the United States, as Trump's deportation campaign seems to collect impulse, and threatens to reduce the offer of crucial workers for the economy of the American country.
Almost one in five workers in the United States was immigrant last year, according to data from the Census office. This marked a record in data that date back decades, compared to less than 10% in 1994.
Trump states that his administration attacks people who are without permission in the United States, who represent approximately 4% of the US workforce.
His promise to carry out mass deportations was a central element of his campaign and an issue that gave him broad support, including that of Hispanic voters.
His government has resumed the raids in workplaces, a tactic that had been suspended during the presidency of Joe Biden.
But White House measures have had a much broader reach, pointing to people in the United States with student visas; suspending the admission of refugees; and taking measures to revoke temporary work permits and other protections granted to immigrants by previous presidents.
The fear of workers
Administration's actions threaten to disturb the reality of millions of people, many of whom have lived and worked in the United States for years.
“We are terrified,” says Justino Gómez, originally from El Salvador and resident in the United States for three decades.
Image source, 32BJ SEIU
This 73 -year -old man is authorized to work under the TPS program, which grants temporary work permits and deportation protection, according to conditions in the countries of origin of immigrants.
His employment, first as a dishwasher and chef in a restaurant and now as a cleaner, helped him send his adopted daughter in El Salvador to school to become a teacher.
But Trump has already taken measures to end the program for people from Haiti and Venezuela. Gómez, resident in Maryland, fears that El Salvador will be next.
“Every time I leave home, I am very sorry,” he declares to the BBC, through a translator provided by his union, 32bj Seiu.
“Even when I go to the subway, I fear that ICE is waiting there to kidnap us.”
Economic impact
Many of Trump's actions have been subject to legal challenges, including a demand for the TPS that filed the SEIU union.
But even if the White House fails to intensify arrests and deportations, analysts claim that their offensive could affect the short -term economy, since it encourages people like Gomez to hide and slow down arrivals.
The growth of the workforce, driven by immigrants, has stagnated since January, when Trump assumed the position.
As companies have more difficulties in finding workers, their capacity for growth will be limited, which will slow down the economy, warns the economist Giovanni Peri, from the University of California in Davis.
A smaller workforce could also boost inflation, forcing companies to pay more to hire staff.
If the policies are maintained, they could have high -range economic consequences, adds Professor Peri.
Image source, Getty Images
The example of Japan points out, whose economy has contracted by controlling immigration and aging of the population.
“The raids against undocumented are part of a policy that really seeks to transform the United States, of being one of the places where immigrants arrive, integrate and are part of the success of society, to a closed country,” he says.
“Instead of being a growth engine, it will become a more stagnant economy, slower and less dynamic growth.”
Many companies claim that it is difficult to find staff to cover the available vacancies.
Only migrants respond
Adam Lampert, Executive Director of Cambridge Caregivers and Manchester Care Homes, based in Texas, which offers home assistance and care services, explains that approximately 80% of its 350 employees are foreigners.
“I don't look for foreigners to cover our vacancies,” he says. “It is immigrants who are responding to the call.”
Like Morán, he said that Trump's measures had already cost him the departure of some workers, who had been authorized to work with temporary permits.
He also expressed concern about the repercussions of Trump's repressive measures in his company, which somehow competes with undocumented workers hired directly by families to provide care.
He added that, if these workers are forced to leave, the demand of their own staff will increase, which will force him to pay more and, ultimately, to increase their rates.
“We will have incredible inflation if we eliminate all these people from the economy,” he warned. “We cannot do without these people from the workforce.”
In Harris Health System, an important hospital network of Texas, Trump's policy changes have already caused the loss of some workers, says Executive Director ESMail bysa.
He added that training US workers to cover the jobs available in their sector would take years, given the growing need.
“As the population ages and restricts a viable source of current and future labor, this problem will reach a critical point,” he says.
A few days ago Trump recognized the disruption that his policies were generating in sectors that depend largely on undocumented workforce, such as hospitality and agriculture, and even, as reported, temporarily suspended the raids in workplaces in some industries after receiving criticism from their republican co -religionists.
Image source, Getty Images
But despite the concern for the economic impact, the Undersecretary of the Department of National Security, Tricia McLaughlin, told the BBC that these operations remain a “cornerstone” of their efforts.
In the housing construction industry, companies from all over the country report that their teams have ceased to work, which will slow down the construction and increase costs in a sector where prices are already a concern, says Jim Tobin, president of the National Association of Housing Builders.
Representatives of this sector have requested the Congress to reform immigration laws, including the creation of a special visa program for workers.
However, Tobin comments that he does not expect great changes in short -term immigration policy.
“I think a signal signal will be needed about when it is time to act,” he says. “Right now, the key is in the application of the law.”
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