This is second post of a series concerning impact of the election on US businesses.  Trump made a big point of deporting illegal aliens. using military force to round them up.  What will he do and how will that action impact businesses here?

The panel expects prompt activity but mostly in the first nine months to a year.  They do not expect wholesale roundups of people who are in the US illegally.  The reason for this prediction is economic.  Certain industries were cited as being at great risk of wholesale deportations: construction, warehousing, big box stores are a few examples.  Also red states are farming states and they need immigrant labor.  Trump’s agenda will not tolerate damage to these sectors notwithstanding campaign rhetoric.

What will cause Trump to focus on the real economic cost of mass deportations?  The comment was made that Trump is deeply interested in the stock market, as are many key supporters. “He looks at the market at four o’clock every day to see how he’s doing.”

It is interesting that here, as with all other areas explored at the conference, the focus was wholly on business impact with no mention of human social impact.  Indeed, the subject of the forum upon which this series of posts is based was clearly on economics and the role of boards of directors under the new administration, and I do not suggest that the panel is without social sensibilities, but on the subject of immigration the lack of mention of social and moral impact was a bit jarring.