These industries are the most reliant on noncitizen workers
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The U.S. construction, agriculture/mining and accommodation/food services industries have the greatest shares of foreign-born noncitizen workers, per census data.
Why it matters: President Trump earlier this summer acknowledged that his massive immigration crackdown is "taking very good, long time workers away from" the farming and hotel industries, and promised changes.
- Yet there's still no major policy decision from the White House, which must balance economic realities with MAGA demands to deport as many people as possible.
By the numbers: Foreign-born noncitizens — including those who are legal residents or have work visas — make up 8.3% of the country's civilian workforce age 16 and older, based on a 2019-2023 average of U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
- They account for 17.5% of construction workers; 17.1% of those in agriculture and mining; and 11% of those in accommodations, food service and recreation.
Zoom in: Around 40% of crop farmworkers lack work authorization, per USDA estimates.
The latest: Farmers "are getting frustrated with the delays" on a big White House plan for undocumented workers, Politico reports, while some farm workers say they're being "hunted like animals" in immigration raids, per The Guardian.
- The Trump administration has taken some smaller steps, such as the Labor Department's new "Office of Immigration Policy," meant to streamline some temporary worker visas.
Yes, but: Some in Trump's MAGA base view any form of capitulation on immigration as a form of amnesty — and a broken promise to conduct mass deportations.
- "MAGA is always on amnesty watch. It will not move forward no matter what name anyone tries to call it. They all have to go home," right-wing podcaster Jack Posobiec told Axios' Tal Axelrod.
What they're saying: "This is not amnesty. It's not amnesty lite," a senior Trump administration official told Axios' Marc Caputo of the visa effort.
- "No one who is illegally here is being given a pathway to citizenship or residency."
The bottom line: Both undocumented workers and the industries relying on them are still largely in limbo.
