Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent argued on Thursday that mass deportations are already improving Americans’ economic circumstances. He pointed to a tightening labor market, rising wages for working-class Americans following the departure of more than one million illegal immigrants from the workforce, and reduced pressure on rents as fewer illegal immigrants compete for jobs and housing.
However, it is important to remember that these problems existed long before illegal immigration reached its current scale, and they will remain long after, if we do not strike at the root of the affordability issue.
🇺🇸 A million illegal immigrants left the workforce.
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) August 14, 2026
Bessent says wages and rent are already moving.
He argues the effect is already showing up in paychecks and rent across the country.
"When you take illegals out of the workforce, working class wages go up.
When you send…
"Things are getting better. We're seeing construction jobs picking up. We're seeing manufacturing jobs picking up. The unemployment rate dropped. We're seeing the big component of the workforce, the mid 20s to mid 50s is very stable. And Rob, the other important thing too, is these jobs are going to Americans. Like we have seen over 2 million jobs created for Americans and we've seen over a million illegals leave the workforce. And guess what? The laws of supply and demand still work," the Treasury Secretary said. "When you take the illegals out of the workforce, working class wages go up. When you send them back home, rents go down."
Supply and demand still work, and mass deportations can ease demand-side pressures. The Trump administration is, of course, right to pursue immigration enforcement. But Americans should not be fooled into believing that deportations alone will resolve the entire affordability crisis.
Prices were still rising under Obama and under nearly every president who was not permitting illegal immigration at the scale we saw under Biden. Mass deportations may offer temporary relief and address a genuine source of pressure on wages, housing, and public services, but they are not a permanent or catch-all solution. If Republicans want prices to fall in a way Americans can broadly feel, they must also confront the deeper policies that have made housing, healthcare, energy, and everyday life more expensive in the first place.
How do we do that? By embracing free-market solutions: supply-side economics, getting government out of the housing and healthcare industries, cutting taxes, deregulating, allowing competition and the invisible hand to take over, and embracing the technological future, including AI.
Much of this has already been pursued by the Trump administration: rooting out fraud and abuse in public programs, reducing the size of the federal government, slashing regulatory burdens on industry, and cutting taxes through the One Big Beautiful Bill. But far more remains to be done. Many of the most important reforms cannot be achieved in Washington alone, they require action by state and local governments, and, therefore, by voters.
Mass deportations can deliver real economic benefits, and they remain an important part of the Trump administration's broader agenda. But they will not be the final word on affordability.
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