United States: Entrepreneurs are low in production for fear of migrants to deportations from Trump

Deportations ordered by the president of United States, Donald Trumpthey cause fear in immigrant communities, but also “anxiety and uncertainty” among businessmen who need that workforce and who denounced on Monday that they already observe a decrease in production.

According to Rebeca Shi, executive director of the American Business Immigration Coalition de Illinoisin deportations they have also fallen “essential workers”, although the government points out that they are focused on violent people and drug cartels.

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The members of that coalition have already reported a 50% deceleration in their operations, because immigrants “paralyzed by fear” do not appear to work and remain in their homes, according to the entrepreneurs on Monday in a teleconference.

“Trump promised mass deportations and is fulfilling it,” Shi said on operations, which the weekend left more than a thousand migrants expelled.

The Immigration and Customs Control Service (ICE, in English) reported that the procedures have been carried out in the cities of Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, and in Puerto Rico, but there were no further details of people arrested

Business leaders participated in the virtual press conference as Matt Teagardenof the Association of Livestocks of Kansas, who said that immigrant labor is essential for their sector and agriculture in general.

“Violent criminals must be deported, but paths are also needed to legalize immigrants who comply with the law and pay taxes,” he said.

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The Executive demanded a immigration reform that solves the underlying problem, because the country faces a crossroads: “We can import workers and continue producing our food in the United States, or import food, which is a national security issue,” he said .

There are also other economic aspects that should be considered, businessmen warned.

Shi said immigrant workers are 25 to 50% of the essential industries of this country, and contribute more than 80,000 million dollars of taxes every year.

Its fault would make the current scarcity of labor, calculated at 1.7 million jobs in health, construction and manufacturing, among others, and will also reduce the internal gross product by 4.2%.

Another aspect to consider is who will replace immigrants in sectors where Americans are not interested in working.

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Tony Dimare, whose family has been working for 97 years in the production of fresh tomatoes in California and Florida, said that industry depends on immigrants for manual harvest.

Most come from the Federal Temporary Workers Program, because “the natives do not want to do that task”, and it is increasingly difficult to get foreigners with the roles in order.

Nicolás J. de la Peña / Dvids / AFP

Immigrants are also essential in the care of elderly and sick, a job where they are 80% of the workforce, due to the absence of US applicants. Adam Lampert, executive director of a company that takes care of sick in their homes in Texas, said that deportations will cause inflation in the market because it will be necessary to increase salaries to attract applicants other than foreigners.

He warned that this industry “grows rapidly” and per year a million nurses will need, “we don’t have domestic. We have to look for them beyond borders,” he said.

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The coalition headed by Shi will begin the campaign ‘Ensure our borders’, but also protect our workforce, aimed at the White House and Congress.

They claim that there is “action now”, through a migratory reform and balanced solutions and bipartisans, that support the leadership and global competitiveness of the United States.

In addition to implementing deportations, on their first day at the White House, last Monday, Trump signed numerous decrees with the intention of designating cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, declaring a national emergency on the border between the United States and Mexico and put an end to citizens by birth.