1.2 Million Immigrants Left US Workforce Under Trump

It's tomato season and Lidia is harvesting on farms in California's Central Valley. She is also anxious. Attention from US Immigration Control and Enforcement could upend her life more than 23 years after she illegally crossed the US-Mexico border as a teenager.

- AGENCIES Washington, 1 September

"The worry is they'll pull you over when you're driving and ask for your papers," said Lidia, who spoke to agencies on condition that only her first name be used because of her fears of deportation. "We need to work. We need to feed our families and pay our rent."

As parades and other events celebrating the contributions of workers in the US are held Monday for the Labour Day holiday, experts say President Donald Trump's stepped-up immigration policies are impacting the nation's labor force.

More than 1.2 million immigrants disappeared from the labor force from January through the end of July, according to preliminary Census Bureau data analyzed by the Pew Research Center. That includes people who are in the country illegally as well as legal residents.

Immigrants make up almost 20 percent of the US workforce and that data shows 45 percent of workers in farming, fishing and forestry are immigrants, according to Pew senior researcher Stephanie Kramer.