JAKARTA - A February 2026 labor force analysis by the National Foundation for American Policy, a non-partisan 501(c)(3) research organization that has consistently advocated for more immigration, finds that foreign-born workers in the U.S. have declined by 534,000 from their March 2025 peak, with no measurable benefit flowing to U.S.-born workers. 

The unemployment rate for the U.S.-born workers rose from 4.3% in January 2025 to 4.7% in January 2026, while their labor force participation rate fell from 61.4% to 61.2% over the same period. “There is no evidence that the U.S.-born workers have benefited from the decline in foreign-born workers,” the report states flatly.

The NFAP estimates the real labor shortfall at over 1.4 million workers when measured against Congressional Budget Office and Social Security Administration projections made at the start of the Trump administration. 

From 2014 to 2024, the report notes, more than half of all American labor force growth came from immigrant workers. 

A separate October 2025 NFAP analysis, cited in the February report, projects that current immigration policies could reduce the U.S. labor force by 6.8 million workers by 2028 and shrink cumulative GDP by $1.9 trillion over the same period. 

The APAC dimension is sharpest in the visa restrictions driving those declines. Under a December 16, 2025 proclamation justified on national security grounds, Burma and Laos face full entry bans on immigrant and temporary visas. 

A separate State Department pause on immigrant visa processing, announced January 14 and citing public benefits risk, covers 75 countries including Cambodia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Mongolia, Bhutan, Fiji, and Nepal. 

Cambodia signed a full reciprocal trade agreement with the Trump administration at the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur on October 26, 2025. Thailand also signed a framework for a future trade agreement at the same summit, and both are now on the visa pause list.