Trump Shuts the Door on Biden’s Migrant Job Boom as Americans Reclaim the Workforce

What Happened 

President Trump has kicked off a massive shift in the U.S. labor market. He has flipped the job growth trend that dominated under the Biden administration. Since retaking office in January 2025, Trump’s immigration crackdown has coincided with a sharp reversal. All net job gains, over 500,000, have gone to native-born Americans.

That’s a sharp contrast to Biden’s term. Under Biden, foreign-born workers gained 4.7 million jobs, compared to just 645,000 for U.S.-born workers. That’s a 7-to-1 ratio favoring migrants.

Now, with Trump’s aggressive enforcement policies, around 1 million foreign-born workers have exited the labor force in just two months (March to May 2025). This is one of the largest drops since the 2020 pandemic lockdowns.

Meanwhile, the labor market is tightening. In May, average hourly wages rose to $36.24, up 0.4% in a single month. Economists say a shrinking labor supply, especially in lower-wage sectors once dominated by migrants, is finally giving American workers bargaining power again.

Why It Matters 

The Trump administration is betting that a reduced migrant labor force will create upward pressure on wages and open opportunities for Americans previously left behind. This approach also fits the administration’s ‘America First’ approach: cut off the cheap labor pipeline while driving up the demand for native workers and let wages rise.

For years, critics argued that Biden’s open-border stance suppressed wages. They say employers relied on a revolving door of low-paid migrant labor. Now, Trump’s reversal is being watched as a live experiment in whether immigration limits can rebalance economic power back to the American working class.

While the immediate numbers do show movement in that direction, it is not enough to call it a full recovery.

Native-born employment is still trailing its pre-pandemic trajectory, while total jobs held by foreign-born workers are still higher than they were six years ago, suggesting the labor market is only beginning to reset.

Under the Biden administration, employers had their pick of migrant labor. But under Trump, they may have to compete for American workers, while also paying them more.

How It Affects You

For U.S.-born workers, especially in blue-collar or service industries, this shift could be a major win. With fewer migrant competitors and a tighter labor supply, your chances of landing a job, as well as negotiating for better pay, just went up substantially. 

For small businesses, the new environment cuts both ways. While it’s almost certainly getting harder to find workers willing to work for low wages, the tradeoff could be a more stable, motivated workforce, and fewer labor disputes.

For America as a whole, this stretches beyond economic implications, as Trump’s reversal marks a defining contrast with the previous administration, and a clear sign to voters that immigration is no longer just a border issue. It’s a paycheck issue.

Whether this trend continues will depend on how strictly Trump enforces immigration rules, how the economy adapts, and how the courts respond to any legal challenges. But for now, the migrant-driven economy of the Biden years has hit a wall as American workers are moving back in.