My newspaper reported that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, arrested 2,250 people in Georgia in July, a 50 percent increase over June. On the same day agency officials were bragging about their public service, I heard the expression “ICE tax.”
The phrase, which was new to me, refers to the hidden costs people pay because of the intimidation of mass arrests and deportations.
A lot of the agricultural workers in the South and Southwest are from Mexico. The pay is borderline, and ICE agents are viewed like sicarios, the enforcers for the cartels. If you’re a migrant worker weighing costs and benefits, you might decide the annual trip north is just not worth it.
It’s apparently surprised some American farmers that they have not been overrun by local folks who want to work in the heat harvesting crops.
Farmers, who are already paying disastrous fuel prices because of a disastrous war, are having to pay higher wages. The higher costs are showing up at the supermarket.
It’s not just agricultural workers. A lot of the people working for low wages at nursing homes and at construction sites are also from Mexico. The homebuilding industry is slowing down in some areas. Nursing homes are raising rates.
I wonder whether the new phrase will catch on.
• Source: I’m not sure who coined the phrase, but an advocacy group called America’s Voice used it in a report mentioned here:
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