What if the U.S. Said No to Immigrants?
10 ways extreme immigration restrictions and crackdowns would negatively affect us all
Immigration policy has been a flashpoint issue of the 2024 election. Negative myths about immigrants have dominated campaign attack ads, U.S. leaders are divided on immigration policies, and the the platform of a major political party seeks to ban immigration from several countries, militarize immigration enforcement, enact mass deportations, end family reunification, and use “extreme vetting” to reduce legal immigration.
Here are 10 ways these policies would affect your daily life and our country as a whole:
1. Food would get EVEN more expensive.
Immigrants represent about 21% of all workers in the U.S. food supply industry, playing large roles in everything from farming and food production, to distribution, to grocery wholesale and retail. Labor shortages and supply chain interruptions would lead to higher prices for food.
2. Medical care would be harder to get.
About 26% of doctors and surgeons and 40% of home health care aids are immigrants. As the U.S. population ages, the need for care is increasing. Meanwhile, practitioners are retiring. A labor shortage would lead to dangerous gaps in care, longer wait times, and strain on providers which could lower the quality of care.
3. Our country would become far less diverse.
We would lose the variety of cultures and the blending and remixing of ideas, language, artistic expression, and traditions that make U.S. life so rich—elements of life we now take for granted, from eating pizza, tacos, and sushi; to practicing yoga and meditation; to dancing salsa and bopping to reggae, to cheering on Rafael Devers and Al Horford.
4. Your neighborhood would likely get more fearful and less safe.
The constant threat of profiling and deportation would put many Americans on edge, leading to community tension and more fear of law enforcement and other government officials. Studies show that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than non-immigrants. Less trust and unity is more dangerous for everyone.
5. Businesses would suffer.
Major U.S. industries like construction, manufacturing, hospitality, and technology are highly dependent on a mix of specialized immigrant and U.S.-born workers. In Massachusetts, immigrants staff our hospitals and universities, engineering and manufacturing firms like G.E. and Raytheon, and biotech companies like Moderna and Biogen. Removing one group of workers from the equation would wreak economic havoc. Immigrants also tend to be more entrepreneurial—on a per capita basis they are 80% more likely to start new businesses.
6. We would no longer have the world’s best universities.
We’d lose the ability to draw and train the best professors, researchers, and students from throughout the world and benefit from their contributions to our country. This would particularly affect Boston, a city whose character is shaped in no small part by its ability to draw talented and driven people from throughout the world to Harvard, M.I.T., and more than 60 other area colleges and universities.
7. Our economy would lose $900 billion over 10 years in tax revenue and consumer spending.
Because the U.S. population is rapidly aging and dwindling, and newcomers tend be younger and have larger families, we would be, on average, a far less youthful and populous country. Immigrants account for 13% of the U.S. population and 77% are of working age. Whether citizens or awaiting status, they are consumers, workers, and taxpayers.
8. The innovation that has defined our country would halt.
From inventing the telephone to the polio vaccine, Hollywood movies to Levi’s jeans, microprocessors to Internet search engines, U.S. immigrants have driven innovation globally. Immigrants are directly responsible for a quarter of all patents in the U.S. We would lose the edge of attracting the best and brightest to experiment, develop, and invent here.
9. We would forfeit our leadership as protectors of freedom, democracy, and the oppressed.
Slamming our doors on people fleeing persecution, tyranny, violence and environmental catastrophes would violate our humanitarian values, and in many cases, international law. We would lose the trust of allies and much of our influence over international conflicts and policy.
10. Millions of American families would be permanently torn apart.
In the U.S. 1,400 children who were intentionally separated from their families by the immigration policies of the previous administration have yet to be reunited. 5.5 million American children currently live with at least one undocumented family member. Many millions more adults are waiting to be reunited with family members abroad whose visas are delayed by backlogs. All of these American children and families would be rejected and abandoned by our government.
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The good news is, we still have a choice. We can advocate to remain a land of opportunity, diversity, and refuge.
I am the grandson of immigrants who came through Ellis Island. Two of my grandparents emigrated from Russia, one from Belarus, and one from Austria. So, I was raised on the concept that America is a great nation – because it is multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, and multi-religious – and that it’s a place where people from around the world can come to find a new life and to prosper. 
I am the son of immigrants. My mother’s family came to Boston in the 1920s after fleeing pogroms in Russia. My father, who grew up in a town that’s now part of Ukraine, was a Holocaust survivor. During the war, he was in hiding for 3 years. The Soviets liberated him in the spring of 1944. An orphan after the war, my dad lived in Displaced Persons camps in Czechoslovakia and Germany. He was smuggled into Palestine in 1946 and came to the U.S. as a refugee in the early 1950s to join family members who were already here. 
I’m originally from Argentina. My mom and I came to the U.S. just before I turned five, and I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. After attending college in New England, I decided to go abroad. I began my career in the international development field in Russia before pursuing my master’s in Italy. It was an amazing opportunity. Living in different countries both as a child and later as an adult really helped me develop a global perspective. Eventually, I decided to return to the U.S. and settle down in Massachusetts. I’ve been in Cambridge, where I live with my husband and our two kids, for over 20 years. 
Richard Golob has broad experience at the international level, from global environmental issues to outsourcing in numerous countries. He is Cofounder and CEO of Quantori, Inc., one of the world’s leading data sciences and digital transformation services companies for the life sciences and healthcare sectors. Previously, he served as Global Head of Life Sciences at EPAM Systems, a publicly traded firm with more than 60,000 professionals worldwide. Richard joined EPAM through its acquisition of GGA Software Systems, a scientific informatics outsourcing company that Richard cofounded and where he served as CEO.
Wade Rubinstein is the Founder and President of The Bike Connector, Inc. in Lowell, Massachusetts, which he launched to make bikes accessible and safe for all Lowell community members, including many IINE clients who bike to work and school. The son of immigrants to the United States, Wade has personally devoted many hours to supporting refugees, including directly supporting a family last year who fled Afghanistan and settled in Eastern Massachusetts.
Carolina San Martin is a strategic leader with experience at the forefront of finance and sustainability. Her board expertise includes finance, sustainability, energy transition, talent management, DE&I, and governance. Carolina started out in the field of international development and took an unconventional route into a career in investment management. She joined Wellington Management in 2005 and retired in 2024 after serving as its first Director of Environmental, Social, and Governance Research, managing $1T in assets.
