Build-That-Wall Pledge Has Companies Bracing for Labor Shortages
- Restaurants, homebuilders fear Trump’s immigration moves
- CEO ‘would love to see them have a path to citizenship’
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For corporate America, there’s a lot to like about President-elect Donald Trump’s platform: fewer regulations, lower taxes and a singular devotion to deal-making.
Yet there’s one signature campaign pledge -- to round up and deport millions of undocumented immigrants -- that has many executives across the country on edge. The proposal, if implemented even remotely as vigorously as Trump at times promised, would squeeze a labor pool that companies like Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc. and Bojangles Inc. say has already been tightening for months. That in turn stands to further drive up labor costs at a time when many businesses are facing jumps in state-set minimum wages.