BlackRock CEO-Chairman, Larry Fink at the CERAWeek by S&P Global energy conference commented that US President Trump’s deportation policy could be detrimental to progress in the agriculture and construction sectors. He raised concerns for elevated inflation and the adverse impact the policy may bring.

In his speech he mentioned that 70% of the workforce in the agriculture sector were “not born in the United States”. While many of them have a US citizenship and a work permit, a significant section does not. Similarly in the construction sector, 40% of the workers fell in the same category.

Fink said he foresees a beginning of a crisis if the deportation rules are further scrutinised by the Trump administration. Quoting an example of the seasonal crop in Spring, he questioned whether there would even be adequate human resource to carry out the harvesting.

“Are we going to have enough workers to harvest the crops? I’ve even told members of the Trump team that we’re going to run out of electricians that we need to build out AI data centers. We just don’t have enough.”

Fink stated that the potential labor shortage could drive up inflation. However, he added that in the long run, advancements in AI and robotics could significantly reshape the U.S. economy, potentially leading to substantial deflation.

Larry Fink’s stand on the deportation scheme has received a mixed reaction from netizens regarding the agriculture and tech industry. Netizens drew parallels between the “need for enough labour” and slavery. A user (@DesireeAmerica4) said, “He’s worried about losing cheap, exploitable labor to fuel his empire. Trump’s mass deportations aren’t the problem. The real problem is billionaires like Fink who rely on open borders to keep wages low and power high.”

As Trump took to office in his second term in January, his deportation and tariff policy were met with large opposition. Coupling forces with Elon Musk and threatening ‘reciprocal tarrifs’ has also been taxing for trade relations with China, Mexico and Canada, all major providers of human resource deep-seated in the US economy.