How California ICE raids reverberate across the labor market
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Could temporary work visas help fill jobs left empty after deportations? I'm David Brancaccio. By bedtime last evening, authorities had dispersed most of the protesters here in downtown Los Angeles and in the city of Santa Ana. The protests against federal government raids on workplaces in search of people in the U.S. without permission were quieter and smaller scale yesterday compared to the weekend. The

The Trump administration has brought in National Guard troops against the California governor's wishes, and now 700 U.S. Marines are being deployed in the region, something the police chief of Los Angeles is calling a significant challenge to his staff's ability to protect the city.

And what do the federal workplace raids mean for jobs that need to get done? Marketplace's Kristen Schwab has more of our coverage. About a third of domestic workers in the U.S., those are nannies, house cleaners and caregivers, are immigrants. And many are undocumented, says Ai-jen Poo, president of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. People are afraid to go to work. Entire sectors of the economy will slow down.

And there will be workforce crises. There already is one in health care, where a shortage of home health aides has been exacerbated by the pandemic and an aging population. It's kind of an all-hands-on-deck situation where we're going to need a strong immigrant workforce and non-immigrant. Undocumented immigrants work across many essential industries like hospitality and construction, tourism,

jobs that often pay less and offer fewer rights for workers. Forty-five percent of agriculture workers are undocumented, according to the Center for Migration Studies. Julia Gillatt is at the Migration Policy Institute. We know that immigrants tend to move where there are jobs, and they tend to move where they have social networks.

Those essential industry jobs and social networks are especially prominent in California, a large state with a big economy and deep ties to Latin America. New York, Illinois, Texas and Florida also have high concentrations of undocumented immigrants.

But Gillette is also worried the Trump administration's immigration policy will discourage legal immigrants who want to come to the U.S. specifically to work. Immigrants have high labor force participation rates, especially immigrant men. They tend to be higher than the U.S.-born population. And the country will need more of those workers to fill the gap left by the loss of undocumented workers, says Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the Economic Policy Institute.

We're going to see a really big push by the employer community to replace a lot of these workers with temporary work visas. So programs like H-2A and H-2B. Visas primarily used in agriculture, construction and hospitality. Big picture, Costa says these raids could hurt the labor market. Immigration enforcement does not help U.S. workers. It does not open up jobs. There's no evidence that that happens.

A study from the University of Colorado, Denver estimated that for every one million workers deported, 88,000 U.S. native workers lost employment. With fewer workers, businesses have a harder time investing in expansion, and there are fewer consumers in the economy. I'm Kristen Schwab for Marketplace.

A trial with big implications for the business of artificial intelligence has just begun in London. Do tech companies violate copyright when they scrape the Internet to train AI systems? The trial began yesterday at London's High Court. Getty Images is suing Stability AI. The trial started with opening arguments from Getty. It says Stability trained its stable diffusion system on Getty's images.

Stable diffusion creates images based on typed instructions or prompts from users. Getty accuses Stability AI of brazen infringement of its copyrighted material, adding that it didn't pay Getty anything. Court filings from Stability say the lawsuit is, quote, an overt threat to Stability's whole business and the wider generative AI industry.

In congressional testimony, Stability has said it's protected by fair use laws and its use of images to train its systems doesn't interfere with the use and enjoyment of the original work. I'm Nancy Marshall-Genzer for Marketplace.

And the performers union SAG-AFTRA has reached a tentative contract with video game companies with the potential to end a strike by voice actors that's been going on for nearly a year now. Limits on cloning voices using AI without permission is thought to be part of this.

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Now to Japan, where prices for the staple food rice have soared after a weak crop, hoarding and lots of visitors. The BBC's Shama Khalil reports from a supermarket in Tokyo. It's been a tough couple of years for Japanese households. They've struggled with inflation, high prices, stagnant wages and a sluggish economy. And yet, not many could see the rice crisis coming.

Hiromichi Akiba is the owner of the Akidai supermarket chain. He tells me this really hit Japanese families where it hurt. Honestly speaking, our customers are in trouble. Many other things like food prices had gone up. Then the rice, which had been inexpensive, went up so sharply. I'm looking at the rice shelves close to the till.

Unlike other supermarkets, this one still has some bags left. But like all other supermarkets, the prices have doubled since last year. Images of long lines of people queuing up to get their hands on a bag of rice shock the public here. Momoko Abe is here shopping with her four-month-old baby. As you know, it's a staple in our lives and it's something that we haven't really, I mean, maybe it's sort of a ticket for granted and it was quite...

The government has started releasing rice from its emergency natural disaster reserve. But it's been very slow getting to consumers. So how is it that a country so famous for its high-quality rice end up here? Climate is a part of this dim picture.

The rice harvest in 2023 was compromised by extreme heat, which affected the supply. Overtourism also played a part. Last year, Japan received a record of nearly 40 million visitors, putting increased pressure on rice demands. Also in 2024, Japanese families were jolted when a warning was issued of a possible mega-quake, which triggered hoarding and panic buying.

Shama Khalil with our editorial partners at the BBC in Los Angeles. I'm David Brancaccio. It's the Marketplace Morning Report from APM American Public Media.

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