Peter Navarro reveals that nearly all jobs created under Biden were filled by illegal immigrants

Donald Trump's senior adviser for trade and manufacturing, Peter Navarro, affirmed in an exclusive interview that virtually all jobs generated during the Joe Biden Administration were filled by migrants, both legal and illegal. During his conversation on the podcast The Alex Marlow Show, Navarro argued that this trend displaced U.S. workers.

Relationship between immigration and lower wages

In the podcast episode recorded at the White House, Navarro explained how mass immigration impacts the labor market. According to his analysis, the arrival of large numbers of workers lowers the cost of labor, which in turn lowers wages.

"Both capital and labor are mobile," he explained. He compared the situation to that of the United Kingdom, where the influx of migrants has generated a wage reduction in factories and has changed the languages spoken in working-class communities.

Data to back up the claim.

Navarro cited a study by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to this analysis, between January 2020 and January 2025, 88% of U.S. job growth benefited migrants, and 60% of them were undocumented.

While migrants gained more than 4.7 million jobs under the Biden Administration, native-born Americans gained only 645,000 jobs. This means that for every job generated for a U.S. citizen, 7.3 jobs were created for migrants.

Labor participation and long-term trends

The study also highlights that a significant percentage of U.S.-born men of working age (16 to 64 years) are neither working nor seeking employment. In January 2025, an estimated 22.1 percent of these men are estimated to be out of the labor force, a figure close to the highest levels recorded in recent history.

On the other hand, in April 2024, the total number of working-age citizens (men and women aged 16 to 64) who were neither employed nor looking for work reached 43 million. This represents an increase of 8.5 million compared to 2000, indicating a growing trend of Americans not participating in the labor market.

The data laid out in the interview highlight an ongoing debate over the role of immigration in U.S. employment and the U.S. economy, as some sectors defend the need to attract foreign workers to fill vacancies, in contrast to those who warn about its effects on local workers.

"Immigration is fine if it benefits a country, but [not] if it totally destroys a country," Navarro said.