Economic Impact of Unlawful Deportation

In recent years, renewed federal and state immigration-enforcement efforts, including large-scale workplace raids and increased audits of employers, have created abrupt labor shortages across critical sectors. Farms are losing seasonal crews at planting and harvest time, food-processing plants are seeing shifts in staff that delay production, and construction sites are left scrambling when key workers disappear because they are afraid to leave their homes. The ripple effects reach far beyond individuals: supply chains stall, local businesses struggle to meet contracts, and entire regional economies wobble under the disruption.

We are inviting nonfiction submissions, including essays, first-person accounts, or narrative reportage, from business owners, managers, and entrepreneurs whose operations, employees, or communities have been directly affected by these deportation efforts. We want work grounded in specific events or patterns. This may include a sudden wave of departures after a raid, the strain of maintaining operations with fewer staff, the cost of lost contracts, or the challenge of rebuilding and rehiring in an uncertain environment.

We are especially interested in how these impacts play out across industries reliant on immigrant labor, including agriculture, food processing, construction, hospitality, and other sectors critical to community infrastructure. Submissions may examine the immediate fallout, the long-term economic effects, or the social consequences for workers, families, and communities.

Writers may submit anonymously or under their real name. We encourage you to show how deportation isn’t just a legal or political matter, but a force that shapes livelihoods, business viability, and the day-to-day functioning of essential industries.

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Why This Call Matters

Across 2025, worksite immigration raids have reshaped entire sectors of the American economy in ways that are immediate, measurable, and deeply destabilizing. In September, the largest single-site raid in U.S. history took place at an EV-battery manufacturing plant in Georgia, where nearly 475 workers were detained in one day—enough to halt production lines, jeopardize contract deadlines, and send shockwaves through a supply chain already strained by labor shortages. This was not an isolated event. During the first seven months of the year, more than forty enforcement actions across the country led to over 1,100 arrests, hitting agriculture, manufacturing, food processing, hospitality, and logistics with equal force.

The consequences have been especially acute in fields where immigrant labor is foundational. In Southern California’s agricultural corridors, ICE activity contributed to an estimated 20–40 percent reduction in available farm labor, triggering measurable crop losses and driving up costs throughout food-production networks. Similar patterns have been reported in construction, where a single raid in Texas stalled a federally funded project for months, and in food-processing plants where abrupt workforce losses have forced temporary closures and operational cutbacks. The economic toll is not abstract. It reaches from the fields and factory floors to the consumers who feel the impact in rising prices, delayed goods, and unstable supply chains.

These disruptions reveal a reality rarely captured in policy debates. Enforcement actions do not remain confined to the sites where they occur; they radiate outward, altering the viability of businesses, undermining local economies, and reshaping the daily lives of workers and employers alike. Documenting these experiences is essential. Your accounts help build a record of how deportation policies, especially those carried out without due process, are transforming workplaces across the United States in real time.

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What We’re Looking For

We are seeking nonfiction that documents, with clarity and specificity, how unlawful deportation and workplace enforcement actions have altered the daily realities of your business. Submissions may take the form of personal essays, letters, testimonies, or narrative nonfiction, and should be grounded in firsthand experience. We are interested in accounts of workforce loss following raids, the operational and financial strain created by sudden staffing gaps, and the emotional or ethical challenges that arise when workers and employers are thrust into crisis. Writers may also address broader consequences such as disrupted supply chains, lost contracts, destabilized customer relationships, and the long-term impact on local economies.

We welcome submissions from any industry affected by labor disruption, including agriculture, food production, hospitality, construction, education, logistics, and technology. Work may be published under your name or anonymously, depending on what best protects you and your community.

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Critical Note

This call for submissions will remain open for the duration of this ongoing human rights crisis. Because the situation is still developing in the United States and the conditions driving these enforcement actions are unlikely to stabilize under the current administration, we will continue accepting work until meaningful resolution occurs. Writers whose submissions are selected will be notified after editorial review; however, publication may be delayed to protect contributors whose safety, livelihood, or immigration status could be placed at risk by immediate release.