ICE in our communities is already a humanitarian, fairness, discrimination crisis. Here is the evidence that it is also a major contributor to rising grocery, housing, and other costs of living for all of us in the non-billionaire class. More reasons that we must demand NO RENEWAL OF ICE FIRING RANGE CONTRACT by the City Council.
Excerpt from the executive summary
Prices are rising fastest in the categories that depend most on immigrant labor. An analysis of federal price data finds that over the twelve months ending in June 2026, while core prices (excluding food and energy) rose 2.6 percent, immigrant-labor intensive goods and services ran well above that: lettuce up 32.1 percent, canned fruit 7.9 percent, fresh citrus 6.3 percent, apples 7.1 percent, home health care 10.7 percent, landscaping 10.8 percent, and whole milk 9.0 percent.
Construction is slowing, and new homes cost more, exactly where immigrant labor is most scarce. The same analysis finds that the states and regions most reliant on immigrant construction workers are seeing employment declines, falling housing permits, and rising new-home prices, while less-reliant regions see growth.
Immigration enforcement surges are costing jobs by the hundreds of thousands, including jobs held by American-born workers. An analysis of payroll data across hundreds of U.S. cities found that the 2025 enforcement surge cost an estimated 668,000 jobs lost, with a conservative-to-upper-bound estimate of 51,000 to 297,000 of those jobs held by American-born workers.
Where ICE goes, local economies contract for everyone. A study from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania matching thousands of ICE operations to real time foot-traffic and spending data across millions of businesses finds that after enforcement moves into a metro area, consumer spending runs 6.2 percent below normal and foot traffic 2.7 percent below normal at the average business, week after week. The damage falls hardest on small independent businesses, shows no sign of fading, and holds regardless of a neighborhood’s demographics.
Put together: mass deportation comes with a steep cost, and American households are footing the bill: the citizen who owns the hardware store, the family priced out of a new house, the worker whose job site went quiet, the shopper who finds the shelves half stocked. The report lays out how.