Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is making a straightforward economic argument for President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda.
Removing illegal immigrants from the labor force can raise wages for American workers while easing competition for jobs, housing, and strained public resources.
Bessent pointed Thursday to improving economic indicators, including stronger construction and manufacturing employment.
He also highlighted a lower unemployment rate and stability among workers from their middle twenties through their middle fifties.
His central point is one Washington elites often pretend not to understand.
Supply and demand still matter, even when acknowledging that reality makes the open borders crowd uncomfortable.
“Things are getting better. We’re seeing construction jobs picking up. We’re seeing manufacturing jobs picking up. The unemployment rate dropped. We’re seeing the big component of the workforce, the mid 20s to mid 50s is very stable. And Rob, the other important thing too, is these jobs are going to Americans. Like we have seen over 2 million jobs created for Americans and we’ve seen over a million illegals leave the workforce. And guess what- mid-20s to mid-50s, supply and demand still work,” the Treasury Secretary said.
“When you take the illegals out of the workforce, working-class wages go up. When you send them back home, rents go down.”
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That economic logic is hardly radical.
When the government stops flooding labor markets with illegal workers, employers face greater pressure to recruit Americans, improve compensation, and offer better conditions.
Housing follows a similar pattern because every additional person needs somewhere to live.
Reducing illegal immigration can ease demand in communities where rents, shelters, schools, hospitals, and local budgets have been stretched to their limits.
The Trump administration is right to enforce immigration law and remove people who entered or remained in the country illegally.
Biden’s border disaster created economic pressure that ordinary Americans were forced to absorb while Washington Democrats congratulated themselves for their supposed compassion.
Yet mass deportations cannot carry the entire burden of restoring affordability.
Prices rose under Barack Obama and other presidents who did not permit illegal immigration on the astonishing scale seen during the Biden years.
Immigration enforcement can provide meaningful relief, but it is not a magic wand for every expensive feature of American life.
Housing, healthcare, energy, insurance, food, and transportation have also been driven upward by taxes, regulation, government mandates, and restrictions on production.
Republicans therefore need to attack the affordability crisis from both directions.
They should reduce artificial demand created by illegal immigration while also removing government barriers that prevent businesses, builders, doctors, energy producers, and innovators from expanding supply.
That means embracing free market solutions without apology.
Lower taxes, fewer regulations, stronger competition, greater consumer choice, and less government interference would do more for struggling families than another pile of subsidies designed by federal bureaucrats.
Housing reform is especially urgent because local zoning rules and permitting delays often make new construction painfully slow and needlessly expensive.
State and local leaders must allow builders to increase supply instead of protecting bureaucratic obstacles that enrich insiders and punish young families.
Healthcare requires a similar dose of competition and transparency.
Government programs should be protected from fraud, but policymakers must also dismantle rules that limit choices, conceal prices, and allow powerful institutions to avoid real competition.
Energy policy matters just as much because energy costs are embedded in nearly everything Americans purchase.
Expanding domestic production and reducing regulatory delays can lower costs throughout agriculture, manufacturing, shipping, construction, and household budgets.
The Trump administration has already pursued parts of this agenda by cutting taxes, shrinking parts of the federal government, exposing abuse in public programs, and reducing regulatory burdens.
The One Big Beautiful Bill also advanced the broader effort to leave more money and decision making power with American workers and businesses.
Technology, including artificial intelligence, can further increase productivity and lower costs if government does not smother innovation before it matures.
America should lead the next economic era rather than surrender it to competitors because frightened politicians demanded another regulatory maze.
Many necessary reforms cannot come from Washington alone.
Governors, state lawmakers, mayors, county officials, and voters must challenge the local rules and entrenched interests that keep housing scarce, healthcare opaque, and basic services expensive.
Mass deportations remain an important economic and national policy tool, and Bessent is right about the immediate benefits.
But lasting affordability will require secure borders, lawful labor markets, abundant production, competitive industries, and a government finally willing to get out of the American people’s way.
