JD Vance, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, recently argued that a mass deportation plan would push US businesses to hire American workers who have left the labor force. In a sit-down interview with The New York Times, Vance laid out his case for why deporting illegal immigrants could revitalize the American labor market.
The New York Times reporter pressed Vance about the potential impact on the construction industry, where a significant portion of the workforce is undocumented. “About a third of the construction workforce in this country is Hispanic. Of those, a large proportion are undocumented,” the reporter noted.
Vance countered by pointing to the millions of American workers who have left the labor force and are no longer seeking employment. “You absolutely could re-engage folks into the American labor market,” Vance said. He referenced the approximately seven million prime-age men who are no longer in the workforce and suggested that deportation could create opportunities for them to return to work.
Vance also took issue with the way the unemployment rate is often cited without considering the broader labor force participation rate, which measures how many people are actively working or seeking work. He explained that the labor force participation rate had not fully recovered under the Biden-Harris administration, remaining below pre-pandemic levels.
The Ohio senator argued that businesses would have no choice but to hire Americans if they could no longer rely on illegal labor. “Americans won’t do those jobs for below-the-table wages,” Vance said, adding that businesses would have to offer fair wages to attract US workers.
Vance also took aim at Vice President Kamala Harris’ border policies, blaming them for encouraging illegal immigration and pushing American workers out of the job market. “It’s one of the biggest drivers of inequality,” he stated, arguing that mass deportation would help fix the imbalance.
