Wisconsin Depends on Immigration

Protests against mass deportation on June 10, 2025 in Milwaukee.

A new report says Wisconsin has an estimated 320,000 immigrants, or about 5% of the state’s population. The estimate comes as the federal government expands efforts to arrest immigrants in the nation illegally.

Immigrants “are business owners, health care providers, educators, and skilled tradespeople, filling roles from software development to agriculture,” according to the State of Working Wisconsin 2025 report published by UW-Madison’s High Road Strategy Center.

The report comes after two recent developments in the national debate over immigration policy: ICE agents began new enforcement efforts in Chicago and the U.S. Supreme Court last week specified what criteria agents can use to stop suspected undocumented aliens in Los Angeles.

Overturning a lower court’s ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court said ICE agents can use “apparent ethnicity” as one criteria for asking about citizenship status, in addition to places where undocumented immigrants gather, the type of work they do and whether they speak Spanish or English with an accent.

The State of Working Wisconsin report does not include any estimate of how many of the state’s 320,000 immigrants are undocumented.

“Federal data shows that in 2023, immigrants make up 7% of the Wisconsin workforce and, according to Kids Forward, immigrants made up 11% of the state’s Main Street business owners, 16% of physicians, 9% of construction workers, and more than 60% of manicurists and pedicurists in 2022,” the report says. “Immigrant workers are essential to our dairy industry and make up 12% of the state’s agricultural workforce.”

In the state’s tightest labor markets, immigrants keep businesses viable, the researchers said.

“But immigrants in Wisconsin face new uncertainties with the Trump Administration’s enforcement actions, which could pose new workforce problems —- especially for manufacturing and agricultural industries,” the report added.

“The [Trump Administration’s] anti-immigrant policies have increased fear and dampened new immigration, constricting the Wisconsin economy where labor markets are already tight,” according to the Working Wisconsin report. “Immigrants face persistent barriers to fully participating in the workforce and community life.”

“Though it is largely a federal issue, state policy also matters. In Wisconsin, limited access to driver’s licenses, tuition equity, and professional licensing, along with language barriers, restrict immigrants’ economic opportunity,” the report added.

“These challenges for immigrant families limit the state’s ability to meet its workforce needs…These policies would also boost state revenues, increase the growth of industries and promote safer, more inclusive communities.”

Since taking office in 2019, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has repeatedly asked Republicans who control the Legislature to make changes that would help immigrants, including issuing them driver’s licenses and letting them pay resident tuition at colleges and universities.

Republicans have ignored those requests.

In March, Assembly Republicans passed a bill requiring Wisconsin sheriffs to comply with federal immigration authorities.

“I think sheriffs all across Wisconsin, in many ways, are already doing this,”  Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said then. “Which is why guaranteeing that all 72 counties follow the law should be simple.”

Evers has repeatedly said all immigrants — the undocumented and those in the state legally — are critical to the state’s economy. The Working Wisconsin report estimates that immigrants contribute $23 billion to the state’s economy, or about 6% of a federal agency’s estimate of the state’s gross domestic product in 2023.

Evers declared June of 2024 Immigrant/Immigration Heritage Month.

In that declaration, Evers said, “despite the important and unique social, economic, and cultural contributions made by immigrants over the past 200 years, the role of immigrants in building and enriching the nation has been frequently overlooked and undervalued… Ignorance, racism, and xenophobia continue to fuel anti-immigrant sentiment.”

Evers said he issued the declaration to remind Wisconsin residents “of the state’s shared values of kindness, empathy, respect, and compassion [and] that diversity makes the state stronger, not weaker, and that immigrants are a fundamental part of the fabric of the state.”

Other Working Wisconsin report findings:

Wisconsin’s 2024 median wage —$25.01 per hour — was a record high.

-“Wisconsin jobs grew to new highs, but growth is less than half the national rate and slowing.”

-“Federal policies — pro-tariff, anti-immigrant, and anti-worker — are reshaping the economy, and Wisconsin workers will pay the price.”

-“The gender gap in wages has closed as women have made substantial wage gains,” while men’s wage gains are “tepid.”

-Wisconsin is losing union jobs at a faster rate than in the nation and in neighboring states.

At a time of polarized and emotional views of the immigration issue, the report offers facts and statistics, as the authors put it, to “provide clear information on the economy as experienced by the working people of the state.”

Steven Walters started covering the Capitol in 1988. Contact him at stevenscotwalters@gmail.com.