The Impact of Immigration Enforcement on Agricultural Employment: Evidence from the US E-Verify Policy

Abstract

Immigration enforcement often brings unintended consequences in domestic labor markets. Using the universe of administrative immigration data from 2005 to 2019, we uncover evidence that the E-Verify, an employment verification mandate, exacerbates the ongoing farm labor shortage in the US. Relying on the newly developed staggered difference-in-differences method, we find that the E-Verify policy restricts the employment of undocumented farmworkers. Our results indicate that domestic workers are not being replaced with declined undocumented workers wherein the inflow of the H-2A visa migrants still remains. Our finding advances a more nuanced picture of the US labor shortage driven by the E-Verify policy. This paper contributes to the rising policy debate on reforming nationwide E-Verify enactment and the H-2A visa program in the US.

Keywords: Immigration enforcement, Migration, Undocumented workers, Agricultural labor shortage, H-2A visa, E-Verify

JEL Classification: J11, J43, J61, O13, Q12