Deportation plan a worry for Californians

LOS ANGELES — The news that President Donald Trump ordered a crackdown on illegal aliens sent a chill through immigrant communities. California businesses that employ lots of immigrants are shivering, too.

Two memos released by Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly last week directed immigration officers to broaden the scope of their enforcement, conduct more raids of immigrant communities, and detain people living here illegally regardless of whether they had criminal records.

Those marching orders could hit the California economy particularly hard. Many of the industries that depend heavily on immigrants already were experiencing a labor shortage.

Illegal workers make up 10 percent of the labor force in California, University of Southern California researchers have estimated, and form a large chunk of the employment that drives industries such as agriculture and construction.

Such workers account for 45 percent of agriculture employment in California and 21 percent of construction workers, according to the university’s Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration. Smaller but significant portions of the workforce in food service, manufacturing, hospitality and entertainment are in the country illegally.

California is particularly dependent on immigrants and on illegal aliens not only because of its southern border but also because the state is such an expensive place to live and do business, economists say.

“In the urban, rich economies of California, the highend jobs are for U.S.-born [workers] and the service, low-end jobs are for immigrants. Immigrants have adjusted to the high-cost environment, and that’s a way for them to absorb this cost,” said Giovanni Peri, an economist at the University of California-Irvine.

There are an estimated 2.7 million illegal aliens living in the state, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.