by the National Bureau of Economic Research, removing the more than 8 million undocumented immigrants would cost the economy as much as $5 trillion USD over 10 years or about 3 percent of private-sector gross domestic product at an average of $500 billion USD in output a year. Trump’s administration pledged to hire 15,000 more border patrol officers and immigration agents and to begin building a wall on the Mexican border. Recent exec- utive orders from President Trump to the Department of Homeland Security are calling for the possible deporta- tions of any undocumented immigrant which could hit specific sectors harder than others as the agriculture, construction and hospitality industries rely more heavily on immigrant workers, because in most cases employers are unable to find American workers who are willing to do the job. Ethan Harris, Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s head of global economics in New York estimates that for every 1 million fewer workers in the economy, GDP would be reduced by about 0.5 percent. That’s the equivalent of $94 billion USD per year. However, White House spokes- man, Michael Short recently referred to a 2013 report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform that estimates the annual “costs of illegal immigration at the federal, state and local level to be about $113 billion.”
By Katie Davis W hen Trump ran for president he promised to crack down on undocumented immigrants, some of whom he has described as competing with lawful U.S. residents for jobs. With the jobless rate in the U.S. at 4.8 percent for January, economists consider the U.S. to be at full employment, meaning that everyone that is looking for a job has one. This is a major concern as President, Donald Trump looks to make immediate changes to crackdown on undocu- mented immigrants which many economists say would further strain an already tight U.S. job market as this would reduce the U.S. labor force by an additional 5 percent. According to a recent research paper released
So time will tell what actions this administration will take and the total impact that it will have on the U.S. economy.
35
MARCH 2017 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker