U.S. Foreign-Born Workers Drop 740K in June Amid Trump Immigration Enforcement Surge

According to reports, the Trump administration's immigration enforcement operations intensified in June 2026, with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shifting to what officials called a "quiet but efficient" strategy. ICE established a target of 2,000 daily arrests—up from 1,000 at the start of the year—with a peak of over 2,400 detentions recorded on June 27, according to New York Times reporting on ICE documents.

The enforcement surge coincided with a sharp decline in foreign-born labor force participation. The number of foreign-born workers in the U.S. labor force dropped 740,000 in June alone, marking the largest monthly decline since Trump's second term began in January 2025. The cumulative decline from April through June reached 1.529 million workers. Healthcare and caregiving sectors, which employ roughly 3.3 million immigrants representing 17% of the industry workforce according to KFF research, face heightened staffing shortages that could drive up service costs.