America needs immigrants — ICE is doing more harm than good

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America needs immigrants — ICE is doing more harm than good

The controversial Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in Minneapolis, dubbed “Operation Metro Surge,” is officially ending. This operation fueled public unrest and angst around the city and across the nation, largely driven by ICE tactics, including ICE officers entering homes without judicial warrants.

Officers approached people they believed may be reasonable targets solely based on what they looked like, generating numerous false positives. Some of those detained turned out to be either U.S. citizens or a legal and documented residents.

These false positives drew unfavorable media attention to ICE activities. The Department o Homeland Security worked to counter such reports with its own releases, highlighting criminal illegal immigrants apprehended. Ultimately, Operation Metro Surge led to a funding standoff of the department and the resulting partial government shutdown.

At the foundation ICE’s operations is the administration’s charge that undocumented immigrants targeted are engaged in domestic criminal activity, in addition to being in the country illegally. Yet widespread crime concerns among this group are not supported by existing data. The rate at which undocumented criminals commit felonies and violent crimes is, according to what information we have, less than half the rate of U.S.-born citizens.

So what place do immigrants hold in our nation? There were more than 51 million foreign-born residents in the U.S. as of June 2025, representing more than 15 percent of the U.S. population. Nineteen percent of the U.S. workforce are immigrants.

The Department of Homeland Security estimated that 11 million undocumented immigrants were in the U.S. in 2022. Using all these numbers, that means that for every six immigrants, one will be undocumented. This explains why ICE officers would get false positives and detain people who are in the nation legally or are even citizens. Such actions also reek of racial profiling.

If ICE used “look” as its sole criterion for assessment, the false positive rates would be much higher in cities like Los Angeles and Dallas, both of which have large Hispanic populations.

Some may believe undocumented immigrants have no place in our country, and that ICE’s actions are necessary to find them and get them deported. What is not widely discussed is that many such people work in industries that provide goods and services upon which many of us rely.

The nation’s workforce, of around 170 million people, includes an estimated 8 million undocumented immigrants, led by the construction and hospitality industries. When buildings must be erected or refurbished, the construction industry, valued at more than $2 trillion annually, relies on undocumented immigrants to perform some of the requisite tasks.

The same holds true of the hospitality industry. Housekeeping service personnel in hotels and cooks in restaurants are often immigrants. Gig economy ride-share companies such as Uber and Lyft also rely on immigrants. These effects could be amplified if immigrants or persons of color who are here lawfully remain home for fear of ICE detention, which occurred in Minneapolis.

If undocumented immigrants stop showing up for work, construction projects may slow. Roofs may not be replaced. Hotel rooms may not get cleaned. Food may not be prepared. Rides may not be available. Such services affect everyone.

Vice President JD Vance has opined that immigrants are taking opportunities from American workers. This has no basis in reality, and polls show that most Americans do not believe it, either. The jobs filled by undocumented immigrants, and even some documented immigrants, are often jobs that must be done but to which U.S. citizens do not aspire.

ICE operations in Minneapolis, and perhaps in other areas of the nation, pushed all immigrants, particularly those of color, to stay home and avoid possible apprehension by ICE officers. The impact across all the industries where they are employed dampen economic activity and impact services that everyone in the nation takes for granted.

What is the solution? A sensible pathway for undocumented immigrants to remain in our nation and continue to contribute to our economy. Though this is antithetical to the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation efforts, any lawmaker who understands the impact of undocumented immigrants on the economy should work toward crafting laws that allow businesses to retain their services for the greater good.

Without such changes, public resistance to unconstitutional ICE tactics will always be present, fueling headwinds to the economy, already weakened by unstable and erratic tariffs that have soured relationships with traditional global trade partners. Indeed, how immigrants have been treated over the past year tarnish the perception of our nation as welcoming to visitors from other countries, both visitors and those who hope eventually to make this their home.

Sheldon H. Jacobson, Ph.D., is a computer science professor in the Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. As a data scientist, he uses his expertise in risk-based analytics to address issues impacting public policy.

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