Tariffs and deportations are contributing to rising prices and fewer immigrant workers

Source: NBC News

Aug. 16, 2025, 5:30 AM EDT


After projections that President Donald Trump’s mass deportations would negatively impact the American economy, the nation is seeing a jump in wholesale vegetable prices and slowdowns in industries that rely on immigrant workers.

Economic measures that are trickling out are leading some to point to the administration’s immigration crackdown, along with tariffs, as at least partly responsible for the slump in some economic sectors and for rising prices. The latest comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which reported Thursday a whopping 38.9% increase in wholesale dry and fresh vegetable prices from June to July, the biggest since March 2022.

Phil Kafarakis, president of IMFA The Food Away From Home Association, which represents food producers, suppliers, services and industries outside of grocery stores, said the warning signs should be taken seriously. Because of deportation efforts, “you are now going to be left with not enough laborers in the fields to pick up and collect product as its coming to harvest,” he said, adding that it is contributing to the current “horribly, incredibly impactful” effect of tariffs.

Combined with drought, excessive flooding and wildfires, the deportations are coming to bear and will become a bigger problem in the late summer and early fall harvests, he said. “I don’t think people realize” there will be a surge in vegetable costs in restaurants, at grocery stores and other places, Kafarakis said.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-tariffs-deportations-rising-prices-rcna225295