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business Monday 9 May 2022
Less immigrant labor in U.S. contributing to price hikes

By NICHOLAS RICCARDI est census — is the highest
Associated Press it has been since the 19th
Just 10 miles from the Rio century. But even before
Grande, Mike Helle's farm is Donald Trump won the
so short of immigrant work- 2016 presidential election
ers that he's replaced 450 vowing to cut immigra-
acres of labor-intensive tion, migration to the Unit-
leafy greens with crops that ed States was slowing. The
can be harvested by ma- Great Recession dried up
chinery. many jobs that drew work-
In Houston, Al Flores in- ers to the country, legally or
creased the price of his illegally. Rising standards of
BBQ restaurant's brisket living in Latin America have
plate because the cost of prodded more people to
the cut doubled due to stay put — or to return from
meatpacking plants' inabil- the United States.
ity to fully staff immigrant- Flores, who runs a chain of
heavy production lines. In Mexican restaurants as well
the Dallas area, Joshua as his barbecue restaurant,
Correa raised prices on the said while the COVID-19
homes his company builds pandemic was a bigger
by $150,000 to cover in- shock to his industry, the
creased costs stemming immigration slowdown has
partly from a lack of immi- Joshua Correa, left, steadies scaffolding for Samuel as they work at a home under construction in hit it hard — and not just
grant labor. Plano, Texas, Tuesday, May 3, 2022. for meatpackers that sup-
After immigration to the Associated Press ply his restaurant's brisket.
United States tapered off "You've got a lot of positions
during the Trump admin- illegal immigration under for their party looming in fic snarls by ordering more that aren't being filled," he
istration — then ground to President Joe Biden will November, Democrats are inspections at border ports. said.
a near complete halt for make up whatever shortfall increasingly divided about The turn against immigra- He's steadily raised pay,
18 months during the coro- lingers from the pandemic. the Biden administration's tion distresses some Texas up to $15 an hour recent-
navirus pandemic — the He also contends wage in- attempt to end pandemic- business owners. "Immigra- ly. "This is a culmination
country is waking up to a creases in low-paying sec- related restrictions on seek- tion is very important for of years and years," said
labor shortage partly fu- tors like agriculture are mi- ing asylum. our workforce in the United Flores, who's president of
eled by that slowdown. nor contributors to inflation. "At some point we either States," said Correa. "We the Greater Houston Res-
The U.S. has, by some esti- "I don't think wages going decide to become older just need it." taurant Association.
mates, 2 million fewer immi- up is bad for the poor, and and smaller or we change He's seeing delays of two Helle, who raises onion,
grants than it would have I think mathematically it is our immigration policy," to three months on his proj- cabbage, melons and kale
if the pace had stayed not possible to drive down said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, ects as he and his subcon- just outside the border town
the same, helping power inflation by limiting wages an economist and former tractors — from drywallers of McAllen, Texas, is also
a desperate scramble at the bottom," Camarota official in President George to plumbers to electricians paying more to his workers,
for workers in many sec- told The Associated Press. W. Bush's administration — struggle to field crews. who are almost exclusively
tors, from meatpacking to Immigration is rapidly re- who is president of the cen- Correa has raised the stan- immigrants. People born in
homebuilding, that is also turning to its pre-pandemic ter-right American Action dard price of his houses the U.S., he says, won't work
contributing to supply short- levels, researchers say, but Forum. He acknowledged from $500,000 to about the fields regardless of the
ages and price increases. the U.S. would need a sig- a change in immigration $650,000. pay.
"These 2 million missing im- nificant acceleration to policy is unlikely: "The bas- "We're feeling it and, if Before he could find farm-
migrants are part of the rea- make up its deficit. Given a es of both parties are so we're feeling it at the end workers just in the region.
son we have a labor short- sharp decline in births in the locked in." of the day as builders and Now he's joined a federal
age," said Giovanni Peri, an United States over the past That's certainly the case developers, the consumer program to bring agricul-
economist at the University two decades, some econ- in Republican-dominated pays the price," said Cor- tural workers across the
of California at Davis, who omists forecast the overall Texas, which includes the rea, who spoke from Pen- border. It's more expensive
calculated the shortfall. "In pool of potential workers longest and busiest stretch sacola, Florida, where he for him, but he said it's the
the short run, we are going will start shrinking by 2025. of the southern border. The brought a construction only way he can keep his
to adjust to these shortages The immigrant worker short- Legislature in 2017 forced crew as a favor to a client crops from spoiling in the
in the labor market through age comes as the U.S. cities to comply with feder- whose hasn't been able to ground.
an increase in wages and political system is show- al immigration agents seek- find laborers to fix a beach Helle, 60, has farmed the
in prices." ing less of an appetite for ing people who are in the house damaged by Hurri- area for decades. "I live 10
The labor issues are among increasing immigration. U.S. illegally. Gov. Greg Ab- cane Sally in 2020. miles from the Rio Grande
several contributors to the Democrats — who control bott sent the Texas National The share of the U.S. pop- river and I never in my life
highest inflation in 40 years all branches of the feder- Guard to patrol the border ulation born in another thought we'd be in this
in the United States — from al government and more and recently created traf- country — 13.5% in the lat- situation."q
supply chains mangled by recently have been the
the pandemic to a surge party more friendly to im- LIKE US ON
in energy and commodity migration — haven't tried
prices following Russia's in- to advance major legisla-
vasion of Ukraine. tion permitting more new
Steve Camarota, a re- residents to the country. A
searcher at the Center for recent Gallup poll showed
Immigration Studies, which worries about illegal immi-
advocates for less immi- gration at a two-decade Facebook.com/arubatoday/
gration, believes a spike in high. With a tough election