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How Companies Are Bracing for Trump’s Immigration Crackdown
Sectors including construction, hospitality, health care and manufacturing are on high alert. Economists are worried about the labor market and growth.
By Andrew Ross Sorkin Bernhard Warner Sarah Kessler Michael J. de la Merced and Danielle Kaye
June 12, 2025Updated 11:29 a.m. ET
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Amid protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles, businesses nationwide are bracing for the wider fallout.Credit...Philip Cheung for The New York Times
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On Thursday, we’re looking at how the administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration is starting to affect businesses directly. We’re also going deep on fintech’s newest darling, stablecoins. And we take a first look at a big fund-raising round for — of all things — a networking start-up.
Businesses in the immigration cross hairs
President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration is rapidly moving beyond Los Angeles, threatening to destabilize companies across the country.
The president has vowed a national effort that is leaving businesses and their employees on edge and economists worried about the long-term growth risks, Danielle Kaye reports.
“One of the main concerns is a loss of valuable workers,” Shanon Stevenson, a partner at the employment law firm Fisher Phillips who specializes in immigration, told DealBook. On Tuesday, she said, she was swamped with calls from businesses across America who fear having to shut down some operations, and potentially losing business and customers.
Nerves are particularly high in sectors like construction, hospitality, health care and manufacturing. The Associated General Contractors of America has been telling contractors to prepare for construction site visits from agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to Brian Turmail, a spokesman for the group.
Raids have occurred across the country:- Stephen Miller, a White House aide, directed ICE officials in late May to target day laborers who typically gather near Home Depot stores, and 7-Eleven convenience stores, The Wall Street Journal reported. Home Depot is telling store associates to report raids near its stores immediately, a spokeswoman for the retailer told DealBook. (The spokeswoman said it isn’t notified ahead of time that raids are going to happen.)
- Immigration officials targeted Ambiance Apparel, a clothing manufacturer in downtown Los Angeles. The company was not notified in advance and is “deeply concerned” for its employees, Benjamin Gluck, a lawyer for the company, told DealBook. The Los Angeles Times reported that raids in the city had also taken place at smaller stores, including a carwash and a doughnut shop.
- Sweeps are accelerating beyond California, too. In Omaha, dozens of people were reportedly detained on Tuesday when officials showed up at a meat production plant.
Employers are preparing.
That might mean conducting I-9 audits to assess their exposure to immigration enforcement actions. If agents do arrive, lawyers are telling companies to check whether they have a signed judicial warrant, make a list of everything officials take from the workplace and document who is detained or taken away.
There are broader implications for the U.S. economy.
Even companies that haven’t been targeted by ICE may feel the fallout as more employees stop showing up to work out of fear of possible raids. But a decline in immigration to the U.S. overall will create a long-term drag on growth, economists at Nomura found.
“The bigger factor by far is the decline in the number of people entering the U.S., not the increase in the number exiting,” David Seif, the chief economist for developed markets at Nomura, told DealBook. Lower growth could have wide-ranging policy implications, he added, making “it less likely for the Fed to cut rates, all else equal.”
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