WSJ What’s News
What Immigrant Workers’ Loss of Legal Status Mean for Their Employers
Wed, 28 May 2025
P.M. Edition for May 28. As the Trump administration has threatened to roll back temporary legal protection of immigrant workers, U.S. businesses are preparing for a blow to their workforce. WSJ senior special writer Ruth Simon visited one such company to understand what that might mean for its business. Plus, Elon Musk criticized President Trump’s tax-and-spending bill, saying that it failed to reduce the federal deficit. And Nvidia’s sales soar as demand for artificial intelligence chips surges, even with the company effectively shut out of China. Alex Ossola hosts. WSJ Future of Everything event Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What does the rollback of legal protections for immigrant workers mean for U.S. businesses?
What John Oswald, who runs the company, said to me is if they lose all these workers, they would have to go back to the military and say, what do you want us to prioritize? This is a very complicated operation. They wouldn't be able to get all their work done. And so it would require some tough choices.
And it would also take quite some time for the company to recover because they would have to find more workers and They would have to train those workers. Those workers would have to get up to speed.
So given this prospect, what are companies, including Mills, doing to prepare?
In the case of Mills, they've brought in a local immigration group to talk to their workers about what their options are. The head of Mills has lobbied for immigration reform. He's been to Washington, D.C. and is trying to call attention to the problem.
I think they're also hoping and praying that they won't have this problem because it's a big one and it's going to be hard enough for them to crack.
That was WSJ Senior Special Writer Ruth Simon. Thank you, Ruth.
Pleasure to speak with you.
Macy's said today that its shoppers are buying more this month than they did in March and April to get ahead of the effect of tariffs. The department store chain is raising prices on some items, renegotiating vendor agreements and shifting its inventory sourcing to ease the brunt of global tariffs. The retailer said that as of February 1st, about a fifth of its products came from China.
In its earnings report today, Macy's said that sales in the first quarter fell 5.1% to $4.6 billion, topping analysts' estimates. It also cut its full-year earnings guidance due to global tariffs and moderating consumer spending. And some 24 million Americans who live in rural places lack reliable broadband internet. Now, many of them may soon get another option, satellite internet.
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