Maria worked cleaning schools in Florida for $13 an hour. Every two weeks, she’d get a $900 paycheck from her employer, a contractor. Not much — but enough to cover rent in the house that she and her 11-year-old son share with five families, plus electricity, a cellphone, and groceries.
In August, it all ended.
When she showed up at the job one morning, her boss told her that she couldn’t work there anymore. The Trump administration had terminated President Joe Biden’s humanitarian parole program, which provided legal work permits for Cubans, Haitians, Venezuelans as well as Nicaraguans like Maria.
“I feel desperate,’’ said Maria, 48, who requested anonymity to talk about her ordeal because she fears being detained and deported. “I don’t have any money to buy anything. I have $5 in my account. I’m left with nothing.’’
President Trump’s sweeping crackdown on immigration is throwing foreigners like Maria out of work and shaking the American economy and job market. And it’s happening at a time when hiring is already deteriorating amid uncertainty over Trump's erratic trade policies.
Immigrants do jobs — cleaning houses, picking tomatoes, painting fences — that most native-born Americans won’t, and for less money. But they also bring the technical skills and entrepreneurial energy that have helped make the United States the world’s economic superpower.
Trump is attacking immigration at both ends of the spectrum, deporting low-wage laborers and discouraging skilled foreigners from bringing their talents to the U.S. This has repercussions for industries already facing labor shortages and may lead to decreased economic growth.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office recently downgraded its forecast for U.S. economic growth this year due to the fallout from Trump’s policies, highlighting the potential dangers of reduced immigration to the economy.
Maria’s experience is echoed in reports from various sectors, including health care and agriculture, where labor shortages due to immigration policy changes are already evident. Economists emphasize that immigrants are crucial for many industries' operations and overall economic health.
