the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Aug 18, 2025
A new report from the University of California at Merced found that the big escalation of immigration raids in California by the Trump administration in early June caused a steep 3.1% loss of jobs. This catastrophic drop was greater than the immediate decline in jobs during the Great Recession in 2007 and 2008, and second only to the unemployment surge during the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
According to the Trump administration’s racist lie, the immigration raids were supposed to free up jobs for citizens. But the exact opposite happened. In California, more jobs were lost by workers who are citizens (271,541 jobs lost), compared to non-citizens (193,428 jobs lost)!
“What we know from previous research is that the work that undocumented immigrants or non-citizens do does not exist in a vacuum,” said Edward Flores, the lead author of the report. “If there’s disruptions to the work that undocumented immigrants do, it has ripple effects. A slowdown in one industry causes slowdowns in other industries.”
The immigration raids also sent shockwaves through many communities. Families were deprived of breadwinners, who were arrested by ICE and deported, or disappeared into the ICE detention system. No one had money, as entire families hunkered down, besieged, behind locked doors, causing many more businesses to shutter and streets to empty.
Almost three months later, in Los Angeles, the big immigration raids of early June have given way to a smaller number of street-level raids. So, many still remain in hiding. Businesses operate at depressed levels with many fewer employees. Hospitals and nursing homes are even more short-staffed than before. Restaurants are shuttered. Work at some construction sites has ground to a halt. And, as the school year begins, many students are still not going to school.
All this spells a depressed economy, more job cuts and spreading poverty and misery. The attacks against immigrant workers are an attack on all workers, immigrants and native born alike.