by WorldTribune Staff, September 3, 2025 Real World News

Census Bureau data shows that more than 1.2 million immigrants left the U.S. labor force between January and July 2025, the Pew Research Center reported.

“After more than 50 years of rapid growth, the nation’s immigrant population is now in decline,” the Pew report said.

As President Donald Trump took office in January 2025, 53.3 million immigrants lived in the United States – the largest number ever recorded. In the ensuing months, however, more immigrants left the country or were deported than arrived.

By June, the country’s foreign-born population had shrunk by more than a million people, marking its first decline since the 1960s.

“Immigrants make up nearly 20% of the U.S. workforce, and the new figures suggest their absence is reshaping agriculture, construction, and healthcare,” Jason Walsh wrote for The Daily Fetched on Wednesday.

Legacy media reporting on Pew’s finding cited liberal economists who warn that the deportations will stall job growth.

This is misleading, independent media are reporting.

According to The Gateway Pundit, immigrants don’t create jobs — they fill them. A construction site or farm requires a set number of workers regardless of immigration status. When liberals cite payroll declines, the argument is equally dishonest.

Illegal workers are usually paid cash, under fake SSNs, or off the books. Bureau of Labor Statistics data captures only legal employment. Declining payroll figures don’t reflect jobs lost, only illegals removed.

“Farmers and contractors warn of ‘worker shortages’ and wasted crops, but what they mean is that Americans won’t work for slave wages. It is often cheaper for them to let crops rot and collect subsidies than to raise pay,” Walsh wrote. “By the next harvest, however, they will have to pay more. The same applies in construction or other industries claiming shortages at $5 an hour. At $20, they will find workers.”

When illegals leave, jobs open to American citizens and legal immigrants, and wages rise.

“Even if higher wages push some businesses to automate or shut down, that is how the free market is supposed to function. Inefficient models dependent on exploited labor should fail,” Walsh wrote.

As for the Left’s claims that there are “jobs Americans won’t do,” Walsh noted that “is a liberal myth. Twenty or thirty years ago, Americans worked in construction, meatpacking, hospitality, and other sectors now dominated by illegals because those jobs paid fair wages.”

Walsh continued: “Mass illegal immigration gave employers access to cheap labor, driving down pay and forcing Americans out. Americans will do any job when it pays at market rates.”

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  Decline of 1.2 million immigrant workers in first half of 2025 reshapes U.S. economy