President Donald Trump’s administration is stepping up deportation efforts in California with immigration raids at restaurants, traffic stops and routine legal check-ins.
The immigration crackdown, while popular with voters in polls, has sparked protests in Los Angeles. Long term, economists warn that fewer immigrants could take a hit to the economy, prompting labor shortages and slowing economic growth.
"Immigrants play a huge role in the California economy,” said Giovanni Peri, an economics professor at the University of California, Davis. Without immigrants, “there will be less economic growth. Less opportunity, also, for local companies and American workers.”
'Wave of panic': Businesses are in crosshairs of Trump immigration crackdown
The country’s economy has become “very immigrant dependent,” according to Christopher Thornberg, founding partner at Beacon Economics, a Los Angeles research and consulting firm.
