4 Employment Actions to Expect Under a Second Trump Presidency

The last decade has reshaped American life and culture, with a global pandemic, shifting identity concerns and changing work arrangements all lending a new appearance to work and life. With President-elect Donald Trump headed back to the White House and immigration issues front and center in the national consciousness, however, in many ways late 2024 feels like late 2016. 

“We do expect that under a Trump administration […] there will be basically a closing of the border almost immediately,” Jorge Lopez, Littler Mendelson shareholder and chair of the law firm’s immigration and global mobility practice, told attendees at a pre-election webinar Littler held Oct. 30. An immediate, stricter approach to immigration is likely to affect industries like construction, hospitality and manufacturing, he said.Lopez—along with Jim Paretti, Littler shareholder and former senior counsel to the acting chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Michael Lotito, co-chair of Littler’s Workplace Policy Institute, and Shannon Meade, executive director of the Workplace Policy Institute—shared a range of other predictions for how President-elect Trump might act on employment issues on his first days in office.

Immigration Enforcement Raids Will be Back on the Table

Immigration reform will be “a priority,” Meade said.

At the worksite, a second Trump term will likely turn to “supply-side enforcement” of immigration law at the worksite, Lopez said — meaning raids, in which government officials arrive at a site with the intention of arresting undocumented workers, will likely be used again. The Biden administration, in contrast, used “demand-side enforcement,” Lopez said, characterized by focusing concern on “whether or not an employer is intentionally or unintentionally hiring undocumented workers.”

On the immigration front, there will likely be a sharp rise in I-9 audits as well, he said. There were roughly 12,000 I-9 audits during Trump’s last year in office, compared to around 400 during Biden’s last year, Lopez noted.

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