How Do ICE Deportations Affect Prices and Jobs in the U.S.?

The report «End the ICE Tax» from America’s Voice, published on August 5, 2026, links ICE deportations to price increases in food, housing, and health care, as well as the loss of 668,000 jobs nationwide. The report is based on studies from the Brookings Institution, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of California at Irvine. The most affected sectors include construction, landscaping, home health care, and agriculture, with Texas and Florida among the most exposed states.

The study coins the term «ICE tax» to describe this economic cost. The organization argues that immigration operations shift costs directly to the wallets of American consumers.

What did the report find about ICE deportations?

The report «End the ICE Tax» was published by America’s Voice, an organization that promotes immigrant-friendly immigration policies. The document analyzes federal price and employment data through June 2026.

According to America’s Voice, the reduction of the immigrant workforce led to price increases in essential goods and services. The phenomenon particularly affects sectors where foreign-born workers represent a high proportion of the labor force.

The study relies on independent academic research from the Brookings Institution, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of California at Irvine. These institutions support with their own data several of the report’s central conclusions, according to CNBC.

How did food and housing prices rise?

Food prices increased well above general inflation. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, was 2.6% in the 12 months through June 2026.

In that same period, lettuce rose 32.1%, whole milk 9.0%, apples 7.1%, fresh citrus 6.3%, and canned fruit 7.9%. Home health care recorded a 10.7% increase, while landscaping services rose 10.8%.

Housing construction also reflected this impact. In the Northeast, where 23% of the construction sector’s labor force was foreign-born, construction costs accumulated increases of up to 15.4% between the first quarter of 2025 and the same period in 2026.

Nationally, permits for single-family home construction fell 9.5% between March 2025 and June 2026. In the 5 states most dependent on immigrant labor, construction employment declined 1.3%, while in the rest of the country it grew 3.3%.

How many jobs were lost due to ICE deportations?

The report estimates that immigration measures implemented during 2025 caused the loss of 668,000 jobs nationwide. Of that total, between 51,000 and 297,000 positions would have corresponded to workers born in the United States, not immigrants.

This finding comes from an analysis by the Brookings Institution of 86 metropolitan areas that experienced waves of ICE arrests during 2025. The study, published on May 29, 2026, used arrest records from the Deportation Data Project and employment data from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, a federal database built from payroll reports.

According to that analysis, average employment in the affected cities fell 0.73% below expectations following the operations. In the 51 cities observed for at least 6 months, the decline reached 1.48%.

Brookings calculated that each additional arrest—meaning each detention that exceeded previous patterns of immigration enforcement—is associated with the loss of approximately 13 jobs in total. In the 86 cities studied, the agency made about 52,000 arrests considered excessive compared to historical patterns.

The Kansas City metropolitan area lost an estimated 7,986 jobs, linked to a 93% increase in immigration arrests, according to The Beacon. In Wichita, a 360% increase in immigration enforcement was associated with the loss of 2,240 jobs.