According to the report, “prices are rising most rapidly in categories that most depend on immigrant labor.”
The report is based on an analysis by economists Robert Lynch and Michael Ettlinger, of the Economic Insights and Research Consulting firm, of the consumer price index that found that “during the twelve months ending in June 2026, basic prices (excluding food and energy) rose 2.6%, but goods and services that require a lot of immigrant labor registered increases much higher than that figure.”
The increases fluctuated between 6.3% and 32.1%. For example, “lettuce rose 32.1%, canned fruit 7.9%, fresh citrus 6.3%, apples 7.1%, assisted home care 10.7%, gardening 10.8%, and milk 9%.”
Since Trump took office for his second term, he has intensified a violent campaign of immigration controls. This has been reducing the immigrant and worker population, and consequently, the American workforce through deportations, self-deportations, the mass cancellation of work permits, for example, for beneficiaries of Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and other initiatives to reduce both authorized and undocumented immigration.
This in turn impacts sectors of the economy that depend on immigrant and undocumented labor. In agriculture, 68% of workers are immigrants, 42% of them undocumented. 39.8% of home caregivers are immigrants, approximately 220,000; and in gardening, 39% of the workers are immigrants, 24% of those undocumented.
Another sector that has been affected is construction, where 26% of workers are immigrants and half of those are undocumented.
According to the America’s Voice report, “construction is stalling and new housing is more expensive, precisely where immigrant labor is scarcer.”
“States and regions most reliant on immigrant construction workers are experiencing declines in employment, a drop in construction permits, and an increase in new home prices, while
The regions less dependent (on immigrant labor) register growth,” the report adds.
For example, in the West of the country, where 25% of the workforce is made up of immigrants, the price of new homes increased by 8.2%. And in the Northeast, where 23% of the workforce is of foreign origin, the price of new homes increased by 15.4%. But in the South and Midwest, with fewer immigrants in their workforce, the price of new homes remained stable.
Jobs held by Americans are also lost because the operations reduce economic activity in companies and businesses and that results in layoffs, elimination of positions and salary reductions.
According to the report, “an analysis of payroll data from hundreds of American cities revealed that the 2025 wave of enforcement measures resulted in the estimated loss of 668,000 jobs, with an estimate ranging between the conservative limit and the upper limit of between 51,000 and 297,000 of those positions held by workers born in the United States.”
“Where ICE intervenes, local economies shrink for everyone,” the analysis says. A study from the Wharton School of
University of Pennsylvania, found that when ICE operations extend to a metropolitan area, consumer spending is 6.2% below normal, and the frequency of business visits is 2.7% below normal for the average business, week after week.
“If extrapolated to the entire economy, that means approximately 8.1 billion fewer customer visits, and between $3 billion and $14 billion in lost spending in a single year, the report adds, and “the damage falls hardest on independent small businesses.”
In short, Trump's campaign of arrests and deportations has reduced the American workforce under the false premise that they are removing criminals, but they are workers in essential sectors and their absence causes the prices of goods and services to skyrocket. It is the ICE tax that we all pay.
