NEW YORK, Feb 23 (IPS) – Trump’s immigration policies are destroying America’s greatness Immigrants are the backbone of America’s greatness: fueling the economy, enriching its culture and advancing global leadership. But in the guise of making America great again, Trump’s exclusionary, racist policies are dismantling that very foundation, stifling innovation and eroding the country’s moral standing.
To understand the size and importance of immigrants in the U.S. and the need for continued immigration, the following clearly illustrates how deeply they sustain our workforce, drive innovation, and secure America’s competitive advantage on the global stage.
The current state of immigration
More than 1 million farmworkers in the United States are undocumented, including about 40 percent of agricultural agricultural workers. Immigrants make up roughly 70 percent of all U.S. farm workers, making them indispensable to the agricultural workforce and underscoring how dependent U.S. food production is on this labor force.
We are already witnessing the impact of the immigration crackdown on America’s agricultural sector. In California’s Central Valley, a majority of farm workers stopped showing up after intensive ICE raids in July 2025, causing crops to rot in the fields due to a lack of available labor. This has resulted in significant financial losses, food waste, lower agricultural incomes and rising food prices.
In addition to agriculture, immigrants from Latin America and other regions are strongly represented in construction, hospitality and food processing; they account for approximately 33 percent of meat processing and more than 80 percent of food production workers.
In the leisure and hospitality sector, immigrants account for about 18 percent of workers; in traveler accommodations (i.e. hotels) alone, more than 30 percent of employees are immigrants.
STEM workforce
According to the National Science Foundation, foreign-born workers account for about 22 percent of the U.S. STEM workforce. Of the scientific and technical professions with a doctorate, approximately 43 percent are foreign-born; in computer and mathematical sciences at doctoral level, this share exceeds 55 percent.
About 30 percent of full-time science and engineering faculty at U.S. universities are foreign-born and are disproportionately at research-intensive institutions.
Denying entry of scientists from countries such as India and China, Mexico and Argentina would lead to serious talent shortages in key STEM fields. Additionally, inventors and entrepreneurs are responsible for a disproportionate share of U.S. patents, fast-growing startups, and advanced STEM workers.
Thus, the loss of foreign-born scholars would undermine research, limit innovation, slow scientific progress, and erode U.S. technological and economic competitiveness.
Research on immigrant entrepreneurship shows that immigrants are heavily overrepresented among new business founders, including high-tech firms and “unicorn” startups, exacerbating the long-term damage that restrictive policies against non-European scientists would inflict.
Immigrants in the US military
In 2017, approximately 190,000 foreign-born individuals were on active duty, representing approximately 4.5 percent of all active duty military personnel. From 2024, approximately 8,000 non-citizens will register annually. In 2022, there were approximately 731,000 foreign-born veterans – approximately 4.5 percent of the total veteran population.
Historically and today, foreign-born soldiers have played a key role in every major American conflict dating back to the Revolutionary War, and immigrants have received more than 20 percent of all Medals of Honor, underscoring the depth of their contributions to national defense.
Reagan’s tribute to immigrants
Perhaps no one can express the critical importance of immigrants to the US, and how they made America the land of opportunity that embodied the very promise that made America exceptional, as President Reagan said in his final address to the nation:
“Since this is the last speech I will make as President, I think it appropriate to leave one last thought, an observation about a country I love. It was best expressed in a letter I recently received. A man wrote to me and said: ‘You can go to live in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany, Turkey or Japan, but you cannot become German, Turk or Japanese. But anyone, from any corner of the earth, can Come live in America and become an American.’
“Yes, Lady Liberty’s torch symbolizes our freedom and represents our heritage, the treaty with our parents, our grandparents and our ancestors. It is that lady who gives us our great and special place in the world. For it is the great life force of each generation of new Americans that guarantees that America’s triumph will remain unsurpassed into the next century and beyond. Other countries may try to compete with us, but in one vital area, as a beacon of freedom and opportunity that attracts the people of the world. land on earth comes close.
“This, I believe, is one of the greatest sources of America’s greatness. We lead the world because, uniquely among nations, we draw our people—our strength—from every country and every corner of the globe. And in doing so, we continually renew and enrich our nation. While other countries cling to the stale past, here in America we breathe life into dreams. We create the future, and the world follows us into tomorrow.
“Thanks to each wave of newcomers to this land of opportunity, we are a nation forever young, forever bursting with energy and new ideas, always on the cutting edge, always leading the world to the next frontier. This quality is essential to our future as a nation. If we were ever to close the door to new Americans, our leadership in the world would quickly be lost.”
How have we fallen from President Reagan’s recognition of the nobility of immigrants to Trump’s dehumanizing assertion that “they eat the dogs… they eat the cats… They eat — they eat the pets…” In that grim descent we see the horrific moral cost of abandoning the truth in favor of political opportunism.
Immigrants have been the lifeblood of the American experiment. When we close our door to immigrants, we close the door to the engine of American vitality. When we open our borders and welcome everyone, regardless of ethnicity, race or creed, we unleash our greatest power: a country reborn, limitless in its ability to dream and achieve the impossible.
Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is a retired professor of international relations, most recently at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs. He taught courses on international negotiations and Middle Eastern studies.
IPS UN Office
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