Wall Street analysis confirms that illegal immigrants have been the primary job growth driver under the Biden government. The study, produced by Steve Englander—head of macro at Standard Chartered, is the first financial industry estimate admitting that illegal immigrants have taken half of all jobs created under the Biden government. Other data, however, suggests Englander’s analysis may even be a low estimate.
Englander posits that illegal workers added an average of 109,000 jobs per month to the non-farm payroll (NFP), contributing significantly to the overall monthly increase of 231,000 jobs. This would suggest that economic gains haven’t been felt by at least half of the native-born workers in the economy.
However, when accounting for the labor pool’s impact on inflation, Englander’s data suggests the only job growth in the U.S. is fueled by illegal immigrants, primarily working in low-skilled labor and being paid below the minimum wage. This is the only way to explain how adding millions to the labor market has had minimal impact on inflation.
Englander’s findings are supported by detailed data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which track Employment Authorization Document (EAD) issuances to undocumented workers. These workers, classified as those entering the U.S. through non-traditional immigration pathways, seem to be heavily represented in the NFP statistics due to their ability to gain work authorization.
The National Pulse reported in February that the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) produced evidence that Biden‘s much-touted ‘job recovery’ was almost entirely driven by illegal immigrant labor. The group found that 2.7 million ‘additional’ individuals joining the workforce in the fourth quarter of 2023 came about because of an increase of 2.9 million legal or illegal immigrant jobs and a decline of 183,000 native-born American jobs.
