Latest US payroll data has painted a worrying picture for foreign workers—specifically for the Indian community living in America.

According to a National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) analysis, foreign-born labour force has shrunk by 735,000 since January 2025. A broader dataset indicates an even deeper dent – about 1.7 million immigrant workers who held jobs at the start of the year are no longer on US payrolls.

The overall July jobs report underscores the slowdown in the US economy. Only 73,000 positions were added last month, while revisions wiped out 258,000 jobs previously reported for May and June. The headline unemployment rate inched up to 4.2 per cent, but long-term joblessness—people out of work for 27 weeks or more—rose to 1.83 million.

US Job data highlights bias against immigrants

Roughly 1.2 million of those layoffs occurred between January and July, a period that coincides with Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Economists say the slide reflects more than tariffs impacting businesses; they point squarely to the administration’s tougher stance on immigration, aggressive ICE workplace raids and renewal hurdles for H-1B and other visas. It is catalysed by growing MAGA rhetoric against foreigners, claiming their jobs are being stolen by foreign aliens.

The anti-immigrant rhetoric that helped Trump return to power is now reflecting in America’s workforce reality. Native-born employment is still climbing, up 1.99 million jobs between July 2024 and July 2025, yet immigrant employment fell 1.4 per cent, or about 452,000 jobs, in the same span.

However, academic research from the University of California, Davis finds immigration has lifted wages for less-educated native workers without harming college-educated Americans. In other words, fewer visas do not translate into more jobs for US-born workers; they translate into fewer jobs overall and a slower economy that costs everyone.

Economist Mark Regets agrees, “So long as we have negative net immigration we will not be able to have much employment growth. The problem with low unemployment with no employment growth is that it becomes much harder to pay our debts or keep our promises (Social Security, veterans benefits).”

Impact of Labour Slowdown on Americans

This job growth has significantly slowed in immigration-dependent industries. This includes construction and landscaping that mainly employ illegal residents. Recent workplace ICE raids have either detained or deported workers or kept many of them at home.

Late-June ICE raids shunted an estimated 70 per cent of seasonal pickers at California’s Central Valley, growers told Reuters. A Guardian report detailed how immigration crackdowns removed more than 125 experienced workers from a GE Appliances plant in Louisville and forced overtime at a Kraft-Heinz factory in Michigan. Some reports suggest 20 to 30 per cent increase in labour cost because full-time nurses are already “working extra shifts”. 

Indian Americans are feeling the squeeze

Routine H-1B extensions are now getting harder as MAGA is vilifying them for taking away high-paying jobs. Even US vice president JD Vance joined in the incorrect rhetoric by suggesting Microsoft replaced the laid-off staff with outsourced foreign labour or new H1B hires. The DHS has made the renewal process more difficult by requiring time-consuming “requests for evidence”. Even EB-2 and EB-3 priority dates have slid further back, lengthening green-card waits already measured in decades.

America’s labour market is not yet in free fall, but it is unmistakably tilting against immigrants. Unless policy course-corrections arrive soon, the cost will be felt on both sides of the Pacific.