Since the election of President Trump, American immigration policy has come to reflect an increasingly draconian, anti-immigrant perspective. Between Trump’s trademark pledge to build a wall on the Mexican border, his harsh crackdown on deportations as well as his inchoate, legally fraught attempts ban immigration from majority-Muslim nations, the scapegoating of immigrants (both documented and undocumented) has come to represent a fundamental cornerstone of both his campaign and nascent presidency. While his arguments are largely economic in nature, claiming that his proposals will open up jobs for American workers and raise wages (Trump, n.d.), the practical implications of such legislation are much more dangerous, and ultimately economically unsound. This paper examines the effects of an undocumented immigration crackdown on the national grocery industry.

In spite of Trump’s fear mongering rhetoric that Mexico takes advantage of the United States by using illegal immigration to export the crime and poverty in their own country” (Trump, n.d.), undocumented workers actually play a crucial role in supplying America’s groceries. With Reuters reporting that up to 70% of farm workers may be undocumented (Abbott, 2013), it appears that immigrants are not actually job thieves; rather, they take jobs that, even in their absence, Americans refuse to fill (Dwoskin, 2011). In the absence of that labor, America’s farm industry stands to lose as much as $9 billion annually (Abbott, 2013). This leaves two options for producers in the agriculture industry: shut down (causing nationwide food shortages and economic damage as the US adjusts to a forced spike in food imports), or raise wages to hire American workers. If Trump’s policies (including a tax on Mexican imports) work as intended, the latter will still be the most economically sound option, and American farms will begin employing native workers at higher wages.