Wherever you look in North Carolina, you’re likely to see something that was built or sustained by hard-working immigrants. 

There are over 664,400 immigrant workers in North Carolina’s labor force, playing key roles in every industry. The fresh produce that’s lying in your grocery cart, the lights that turn back on after a storm, the freshly paved roads that connect a growing community– immigrant workers likely contributed, helping to keep your community running.  

They keep public services running too. In North Carolina, immigrants contribute over $11.4 billion in taxpayer dollars to help fund our schools, healthcare, and more– including over $1.2 billion to funding Medicare and $4.5 billion to Social Security each year. 

But despite their contributions, we’re continuing to see intensifying attacks on immigrant communities. And as those attacks intensify, we’re also seeing worker protections shrink, leading to unsafe conditions, wage theft, and ultimately, shared pain for entire communities. 

The main cause of the pain right now is the Trump administration’s violent, chaotic, and cruel deportation campaign being carried out across the country. 

It’s causing pain for taxpayers, who are being forced to fund an $85 billion ICE operation that continues to flood our communities with dangerous, untrained federal agents. ICE’s budget includes $45 billion for detention centers– one of which is coming to North Carolina. 

It’s causing pain for consumers, who are paying more at the register as a result of labor shortages. 1 in 4 NC construction workers are immigrants, as well as nearly 1 in 5 NC agricultural workers. As a result, construction is slowing and new-home prices are climbing fastest where immigrant labor is scarcest. Lettuce was up 32%, home health care up 10%, and canned fruit 8% – all far outpacing inflation.

It’s causing pain for businesses, whose workers are afraid to show up to work and whose customers are afraid to leave their homes. After ICE hits a community, spending drops 6.2% and foot traffic falls 2.7%. The 2025 ICE surge cost an estimated 668,000 jobs across the country. We saw this in North Carolina when Operation Charlotte’s Web shut down businesses and forced residents to stay home for an extended period of time. Charlotte lost nearly 10,000 jobs as a result.

And it’s causing pain for families, who are living in the constant fear of racial discrimination and wrongful deportation. 

As we’re stuck paying the price of Trump’s deportation campaign, some bad actors are profiting. The surge of ICE enforcement has been exploited by some employers, who use the looming threat of deportation as a way to get away with wage theft or unsafe work conditions. 

No one should be afraid to go to work or wonder if they’ll make it home to their family. No one should have to choose between reporting unsafe conditions and risking wrongful deportation. 

So late last week, North Carolinians came together outside the NC Department of Labor to send a clear message: every worker deserves fair pay, safe conditions, and to be treated with dignity and respect. It’s time to prioritize protecting workers, not corporate profits. 

“If these things keep happening with anti-immigrant laws, there will be many workers afraid to go to work,” Andressia Ramírez said. “It’s not a dignified way to live.” 

“Instead of prioritizing massive tax breaks for corporations, our legislators should focus on the well-being of all workers, regardless of their immigration status, so that North Carolina can truly prosper,” Xitlali Gómez said.

This administration had a choice: bring down costs for American families, or pour taxpayer dollars into mass deportation– it chose deportation. 

This campaign hasn’t lowered costs, it’s raised them. It hasn’t strengthened our communities, it’s been used as an attempt to tear us apart.

North Carolina is lucky to have the immigrants who live and work here, and we’re lucky to have local leaders who are willing to step up and advocate for them. Throughout tough circumstances, they’ve continued to support us and keep our communities running. Now we need to do a better job of supporting them.