Less immigrant labor in U. S. contributing to price hikes
Just 10 miles from the Rio Grande, Mike Helle’s farm is so short of immigrant workers that he has replaced 450 acres of labor- intensive leafy greens with crops that can be harvested by machinery.
In Houston, Al Flores increased the price of his barbecue restaurant’s brisket plate because the cost of the cut doubled as a result of meatpacking plants’ inability to fully staff immigrant- heavy production lines. In the Dallas area, Joshua Correa raised prices on the homes his company builds by $ 150,000 to cover increased costs stemming partly from a lack of immigrant labor.
After immigration to the United States tapered off during the Trump administration — then ground to a near complete halt for 18 months during the pandemic — the country is waking up to a labor shortage partly fueled by that slowdown.
The U. S. has, by some estimates, 2 million fewer immigrants than it would have if the pace had stayed the same, helping power a desperate scramble for workers in many sectors, from meatpacking to home building, that is also contributing to supply shortages and price increases.
“These 2 million missing immigrants are part of the reason we have a labor shortage,” said Giovanni Peri, an economist at the University of California- Davis, who calculated the shortfall. “In the short run, we are going to adjust to these shortages in the labor market through an increase in wages and in prices.”
The labor issues are among several contributors to the highest inflation in 40 years in the United States — from supply chains mangled by the pandemic to a surge in energy and commodity prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Steve Camarota, a researcher at the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for less immigration, believes a spike in illegal immigration under President Joe Biden will make up whatever shortfall lingers from the pandemic. He also contends wage increases in low- paying sectors such as agriculture are minor contributors to inflation.
“I don’t think wages going up is bad for the poor, and I think mathematically it is not possible to drive down inflation by limiting wages at the bottom,” Camarota told The Associated Press.
Immigration is rapidly returning to prepandemic levels, researchers say, but the U. S. would need a significant acceleration to make up its deficit. Given a sharp decline in births in the United States over the past two decades, some economists forecast the overall pool of potential workers will start shrinking by 2025.
The worker shortage comes as the U. S. political system is showing less of an appetite for increasing immigration. Democrats — who control the legislative and executive branches of the federal government and have been the party more friendly to immigration — haven’t tried to advance major legislation permitting more new residents to the country. A recent Gallup poll showed worries about illegal immigration at a two- decade high. With a tough election for their party looming in November, Democrats are increasingly divided about the Biden administration’s attempt to end pandemic- related restrictions on seeking asylum.
“At some point we either decide to become older and smaller or we change our immigration policy,” said Douglas Holtz- Eakin, an economist and former official in President George W. Bush’s administration who is president of the centerright American Action Forum. He acknowledged a change in immigration policy is unlikely: “The bases of both parties are so locked in.”
That’s certainly the case in Republicandominated Texas, which includes the longest and busiest stretch of the southern border. The Legislature in 2017 forced cities to comply with federal immigration agents seeking people who are in the U. S. illegally. Gov. Greg Abbott sent the Texas National Guard to patrol the border and recently created traffic snarls by ordering more inspections at border ports.