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How 'Made in USA' will unravel without immigrants

22 Jun '25
3 min read
How 'Made in USA' will unravel without immigrants
How 'Made in USA' will unravel without immigrants

Insights

  • LA houses the largest cut and sew apparel base in the US.
  • ICE raids on LA garment factories have disrupted the immigrant-driven US apparel sector, exposing the contradiction in promoting 'Made in USA' while cracking down on its workforce.
  • With immigrants comprising nearly one-third of garment workers, the crackdown threatens domestic production, exports, and the very revival tariffs aim to support.

Even as Washington pushes tariffs and ‘Made in USA’ campaigns to revive domestic manufacturing, its aggressive immigration enforcement is currently gutting the workforce that keeps many factories running.

For decades, immigrant labour—documented and undocumented—has been the invisible thread holding American apparel together. Now, as ICE raids empty workshops and tariffs strangle supply chains, the industry faces a reckoning. The question is not whether the US wants to manufacture clothes domestically—it is whether it is willing to keep the workers who make it possible.

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