Immigration restrictions enacted under the administration of former President Donald Trump are increasingly impacting the U.S. economy, according to industry experts and recent studies. Businesses that rely heavily on immigrant labor and specialized foreign workers are facing significant challenges in maintaining operations and growth.

Sharadha Kodem, an immigration attorney based in Irving, Texas, has observed firsthand the economic consequences of tightening visa policies. Several engineering and architecture firms she represents have relocated work to countries including Canada, Mexico, and Costa Rica due to difficulties securing skilled workers in the U.S. The pharmaceutical sector has similarly outsourced quality-control jobs back to India, citing the administration’s stricter H-1B visa rules as a key factor. The H-1B visa, frequently used by technology firms, hospitals, universities, and financial companies to attract skilled foreign labor, now carries a $100,000 application fee. This charge, introduced without Congressional approval and currently under legal challenge after being ruled an illegal tax by a federal judge, remains in effect during the appeals process.

Kodem, who immigrated from India and previously worked under an H-1B visa, emphasized the current labor shortage in the U.S. despite efforts to curb immigration. “There’s a dearth, a need for people here,” she said, highlighting the widening gap between workforce demand and available talent.

Trump’s administration maintained that reducing immigration would open more jobs for U.S. citizens, but many industry representatives contend the opposite is occurring. Immigration has long supported the country’s economic vitality across both high-skilled and lower-wage sectors.

In Springfield, Ohio, Haitian immigrant James Pierre has experienced the impact on his community and business. Pierre, who fled crime and instability in Haiti 25 years ago, owns a restaurant serving Creole cuisine. Haitian migrants have played a critical role in revitalizing the 60,000-resident industrial town, but the recent Supreme Court ruling that upheld the Trump administration’s decision to terminate Temporary Protected Status for 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians threatens to remove many from the workforce. Pierre expressed concern about the broader economic ramifications: “The economy will collapse. We cannot have an economy without these workers.”

Further constraining immigration, a rule introduced in May now mandates that most green card applicants leave the U.S. and wait abroad during their application process, which can extend over years due to limited consular interview availability. This is expected to reduce overall green card approvals and adversely affect industries like construction, which depend heavily on both documented and undocumented immigrant labor.

Kenny Mallick, a former plumbing and HVAC contractor in the Washington, D.C., area, said undocumented workers, often hired through labor brokers, have been essential to the region’s building boom. He warned that aggressive immigration enforcement and deportations could dramatically slow construction progress: “You cannot build what we’ve built in the D.C. metropolitan area without them.”

A study from the Brookings Institution found that Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests in early 2025 eliminated approximately 668,000 jobs, estimating that each arrest indirectly results in the loss of 13 positions due to disruptions in local labor markets. The research also noted that ICE enforcement can reduce immigrant participation in everyday economic activities, subsequently affecting sectors with fewer immigrant workers.

Immigration historian Hidetaka Hirota of the University of California, Berkeley, noted that Trump’s policies depart from previous decades of U.S. immigration enforcement that largely targeted undocumented migrants. This administration expanded its focus to legal immigration pathways, including H-1B visas, heavily utilized by workers from India. Hirota suggested the policies reflect deeper historical patterns tied to racial and national origin biases, drawing parallels to exclusionary laws from earlier American history. “Restricting H-1B, you can interpret this as an anti-Asian policy,” he said.

As the U.S. economy continues to grapple with these immigration changes, experts warn that reduced labor availability may inhibit growth across multiple sectors, posing risks to the country’s broader economic stability.