Brookings report: Trump’s ICE crackdown led to loss of 668,000 jobs

(SeaPRwire) –   A Brookings Institution report states that last year’s immigration enforcement surge by the Trump administration in U.S. cities led to the loss of 668,000 jobs, generating a pervasive “chilling effect” that damaged local economies, harmed businesses, and impacted American-born workers.

The authors of the study, released Friday, said the Immigration and Customs Enforcement campaign employed “shock and awe” tactics that were more extensive and conspicuous than prior enforcement operations, including one initiated under former President George W. Bush in 2008 and maintained under former President Barack Obama.

In the 86 cities with the most pronounced increase in ICE arrests, researchers linked approximately 13 lost jobs to every additional arrest. Sectors such as construction, which typically hire a significant proportion of undocumented migrants, felt the strongest effect. However, employment also dropped considerably in fields like arts and entertainment, where immigrants are less common. The authors attribute this to businesses reducing their workforce as public outings decline when ICE raids are prominent in the news.

“Enforcement at this scale and speed — visible, shocking, designed to produce fear beyond the directly targeted population — destroys jobs, disrupts businesses that Americans own and run, and depresses the local economies in which Americans live and work,” Marcela Escobari, Ian Seyal and Paul Beach wrote in the report.

The White House did not promptly respond to a request for comment on the report.

Read More: ICE Raids Inflicted Lasting Damage on American Businesses

The analysis examined 86 cities that underwent an enforcement surge in the first half of 2025 and contrasted them with cities that did not, to help separate the impact from other influences on local employment. The researchers utilized arrest data from the Deportation Data Project, which monitors ICE arrests via the Freedom of Information Act, alongside employment estimates from labor market research firm Lightcast and federal payroll records.

The study estimated that of the 668,000 jobs lost across those 86 cities, between 51,000 and 297,000 would have been occupied by American-born workers. According to the report, businesses dependent in part on immigrant labor abruptly faced shortages and reduced operations for all workers, including those born in the U.S.

Read More: Border Crackdown Hasn’t Delivered on Jobs: Washington Edition

Simultaneously, consumer spending decreased in communities with large immigrant populations. The authors reference a study from earlier this year indicating that spending in Los Angeles neighborhoods with high concentrations of foreign-born residents dropped by up to 25% in the two months after a local ICE campaign was announced.

“If the objective is to protect American workers and support resilient local economies, a wide-scale, ‘shock and awe’ enforcement approach in American cities is a costly and counterproductive tool,” the authors wrote.