The Brilliant Plan to Collapse the Economy One Deportation at a Time

The Department of Homeland Security might want to consider a rebrand: maybe something like the Department of National Self-Sabotage. Because what else do you call a government actively purging the very labor force that props up the American economy while pretending it’s all part of some master plan to Make America Great Again™?

As Politico recently reported in stomach-turning detail, the United States is finally getting a taste of what a country looks like after you decimate its pool of foreign workers. You know, the “illegal aliens” GOP leaders love to demonize—until their absence leaves crops rotting in fields, construction projects abandoned, and meat processing plants one broken conveyor belt away from total shutdown.

The Trump administration has been purging workers at a staggering pace: revoking temporary protected status, allowing legal work permits to expire, tightening visa requirements, and siccing ICE on long-time residents who committed the high crime of existing. And now? Farms can’t find help to milk cows. Disney resorts are short-staffed. Even Walmart and Amazon are quietly sounding the alarm. Turns out, when you build your economy on labor you refuse to legalize, then rip that labor out, the whole thing kind of breaks. Who could’ve guessed?

Oh right. Literally everyone.

One Midwest agriculture official put it simply: “Essential isn’t a strong enough word.” No kidding. That quote should be printed on a golden plaque and bolted to every podium where a Republican grins while chanting “America First.” Because if this is what “first” looks like, it’s no wonder the shelves are half-stocked and produce is priced like imported luxury goods.

Meanwhile, in a move that can only be described as political arson, Trump’s recently passed “Big Beautiful Bill” pours billions of new dollars into ICE—because nothing says “economic recovery” like mass deportations and US military deployments to US cities. Supposedly these funds are meant to help ICE remove the “worst of the worst.” And by that, we now understand they mean: longtime U.S. residents, farmworkers, meatpackers, landscapers, maids, and kitchen staff who’ve paid taxes and raised families in this country for decades.

It’s the bureaucratic version of setting your house on fire because you think the fire alarms are watching you.

And in a moment of true cognitive dissonance, the administration has floated its latest fever dream: redirecting poor and unemployed Americans—many of them Medicaid recipients—into agricultural labor to replace the missing immigrant workforce. That’s not a solution. That’s a dystopian draft policy with a cheap MAGA hat slapped on top.

Let’s unpack the genius here: rather than offer legal, stable, year-round work permits to people who already have experience, work ethic, and a desire to do the job, they’ll send Grandma from Detroit to pick lettuce in 108-degree heat because her state’s unemployment fund ran out.

Sure, that’ll go great. Be a big hit. Everyone’s say it.

And what of the businesses themselves? They’re begging for predictability. They don’t want “open borders” (a phrase conservatives misuse so often it should come with a warning label). They want consistent policy. A functioning visa system. A workforce pipeline that doesn’t vanish every election cycle because some Fox News host decided to yell “invasion” between MyPillow commercials.

Instead, they’re getting bureaucratic chaos in a cowboy hat. The new “Office of Immigration Policy” might sound promising—until you realize it’s just a political smoke screen, designed to placate moderates while doing absolutely nothing to restore the lost workforce.

Because let’s be honest: this isn’t a policy failure. It’s an ideological success. Gutting legal immigration is the point. Choking labor supply is the point. Letting farms and factories falter under the weight of worker shortages? Still the point. If the result is pain, inflation, and economic instability—so be it. The base gets to feel like someone “took action,” and the elites can blame the consequences on Biden, China, or whatever scapegoat polls best this week.

And yet, the Trump administration keeps insisting it’s looking out for “real Americans.” You know—the ones now forced to pay more for food, endure longer shipping times, and watch rural hospitals close because the immigrant staff has been run off. Congratulations, patriots. We built a system dependent on foreign labor, and then we deported the labor.

You broke it. You own it.

And to be perfectly clear: there is zero sympathy due here. None. The MAGA faithful marched, shouted, and voted for policies rooted in xenophobia and economic delusion. And now that those policies are actually being implemented, it’s the red counties choking hardest on their own success. If you demanded a wall, an ICE raid, and mass deportations—congrats. Your produce is rotting in the fields, and your neighbor’s kid isn’t interested in slitting chicken throats for $11.50 an hour. This is the America you asked for. You brought the jobs back all right but (gasp!) no one wants them.

Ironically, it’s the very sectors Trump once claimed to champion—agribusiness, manufacturing, domestic supply chains—that are now bearing the brunt. The man toured Iowa promising farmers a better deal. Instead, they’re getting rationed labor, empty help-wanted boards, and the occasional photo op where he hugs a tractor and blames the Mexicans.

So what would a sane response look like?

• Reinstating work permits for long-term residents, particularly those already in the workforce.

• Expanding seasonal visa programs and eliminating bureaucratic bottlenecks.

• Creating a pathway to legal residency for the people already holding up the system.

• And maybe—just maybe—admitting that immigrants aren’t stealing jobs. They’re doing the work most Americans won’t or can’t do under the conditions offered.

But none of that fits on a bumper sticker. And it certainly doesn’t rile up the base like a good ol’ fashioned deportation spree. So instead, we’ll keep watching this slow-motion train wreck—one that was entirely preventable, repeatedly warned against, and yet still proudly engineered by the same folks now holding press conferences asking, “Where did all the workers go?”

Here’s a hint: they’re on a plane out of here, courtesy of your Big Beautiful Bill.

But hey—at least the red hats are still in stock.