WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump promises the biggest deportation event the US has ever seen if he is elected — a promise he has predicated, in part, on the notion that immigrants in the US legally and illegally are stealing what he calls "Black jobs" and "Hispanic jobs."
But government data show immigrant labour contributes to economic growth and provides promotional opportunities for native-born workers. And a mass deportation event would cost US taxpayers up to a trillion dollars and could cause the cost of living, including food and housing, to skyrocket, economists say.
At a recent rally in Reading, Pennsylvania, Trump said, "You have an invasion of people into our country."
"They're going to be attacking — and they already are — Black population jobs, the Hispanic population jobs, and they're attacking union jobs too," Trump said. "So when you see the border, it's not just the crime. Your jobs are being taken away too."
Trump's rhetoric about jobs has been widely condemned by Democrats and Black leaders who have called it a racist and insulting way of implying that Black and Hispanic Americans take menial jobs.
Janiyah Thomas, the director of Team Trump Black Media, told The Associated Press that Democrats "continue to prioritise the interests of illegal immigrants over our own Black Americans who were born in this country" and that Biden-era job gains in the labour market were primarily due to illegal immigration.
The latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Population Survey data shows that as of 2023, native-born Black workers are most predominantly employed in management and financial operations, sales and office support roles, while native-born Latino workers are most often employed in management, office support, sales and service occupations.
Foreign-born, noncitizen Black workers are most often represented in transportation and health care support roles, and foreign-born, noncitizen Hispanic workers are most often represented in construction, building and grounds cleaning.
In 2023, international migrants — primarily from Latin America — accounted for more than two-thirds of the population growth in the United States, and so far this decade they have made up almost three-quarters of US growth.
After hitting a record high in December 2023, the number of migrants crossing the border has plummeted.
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