Deportation 'damaging'

Inflation will rise as wages go up to attract Americans.

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President-elect Donald Trump's hardline immigration proposals, including a controversial mass deportation plan, could prove economically damaging, analysts say, with US sectors that rely heavily on foreign workers like agriculture and construction especially hard hit.

US authorities estimate that there are about 11 million unauthorized people living in the United States, the vast majority of whom come from Mexico.

Around 8.3 million unauthorized people were in the labor force in 2022, according to a recent estimate from the Pew Research Center. That was equivalent to just under 5% of the overall workforce.

"Today our cities are flooded with illegal aliens," Trump said on the campaign trail earlier this year, adding: "Americans are being squeezed out of the labor force and their jobs are taken."

The reality, however, is more complex; many of the sectors that could be the hardest-hit have long struggled to attract US workers.