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Rick Howe is president of the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce. The 900-member organization will wait to see any immigration changes under Trump before reacting. “We’ve been through this before,” he said.
The Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce isn’t reacting yet to a second election of President-elect Donald Trump.
Rick Howe runs the chamber and told KHOL in December that three chamber businesses had reached out to him with immigration-related concerns. Howe does not soon anticipate the chamber taking a stance on immigration policies. But he said his policy teams are preparing to discuss changes as they come, such as mass deportations.
“We want to make sure that we have access to the workers that we need as a community to help us continue to do what we do on a daily basis.” Howe said. “Economic viability is key for us.”
He said he doesn’t have up-to-date data on the community’s number of working immigrants — documented or otherwise. But he said immigrants mostly work in the tourism and service industries, Teton County’s economic engine.
For Teton County and surrounding communities, how many immigrants would be targeted in a second Trump administration is still unknown.
But as Trump prepares to return to the White House, the question of how many will be impacted by his policies has become increasingly relevant for immigrants from many walks of life.
Trump’s administration promises the largest mass deportation in the country’s history, after the Biden administration’s deportations already hit a 10-year high. As summarized by the Niskanen Center, a potential policy playbook for the second Trump term, Project 2025, proposes cutting protections for holders of Temporary Protected Status, young adults known as Dreamers, more than 175,000 Ukrainians, in addition to restrictions for H-2A and H-2B temporary worker visas.
For unauthorized immigrants and migrants, part of what makes the population hard to track is obvious: they aren’t documented in the U.S. census. The census doesn’t separate documented and undocumented residents — it just totals.
University of Wyoming Professor Roger Coupal researches the economics of community developments across the state, with a focus on the agricultural sector. He has some rough estimates, putting the state’s number of undocumented migrants at 5,000.
Teton County, according to the U.S. census, is home to 2,900 residents born outside the U.S., or 12.5% of the county’s population. Just under a third have become naturalized citizens, according to the state’s Chief Economist Wenlin Liu.
Coupal noted that many who come to the U.S. are fleeing “extreme situations” when they come to Jackson in search of work or safer living conditions. As more immigrants settle and become part of the community and economy, many ski towns in the West, including Jackson Hole,could be devastated by mass deportations, he added.
Until new policies or deportation practices exist, though, Howe said his organization would be proactive. It’s a lot of “wait and see” until January, he said.
Howe envisions the chamber’s role as a source of information and connection.
He mentioned other nonprofits like Voices JH and One22, with whom the chamber could facilitate conversations, correct misinformation and be a source to which individuals and businesses alike can turn.
To start, the chamber is planning a Feb. 6 “Business Over Breakfast,” a monthly networking event for members, to address questions businesses may have a few weeks into Trump’s second administration.
Coupal said a loss of migrant workers and Trump’s impending tariffs could thrust the country into a recession.
“You could see a reduction in output on the industry side because we don’t have workers,” Coupal said.
There’s no research, he said, that supports Trump’s previous claims that immigrants hurt the economy.
A recent report by the American Immigration Council said mass deportation would cost the U.S. $315 billion initially, with long-term costs potentially tripling.
Jeremy Robbins, executive director of the American Immigration Council, said in a recent press release that mass deportation would come at an “extraordinary cost” to the government while hindering the economy. He warned of “tens of billions of tax-payer dollars lost, already-strained industries devastated, millions of people locked up in detention, and thousands of families torn apart.”
The study also indicates that national GDP could shrink 4.2% to 6.8%. For comparison, the economy decreased by 4.3 percent during the 2007 to 2009 recession, according to the study.
“We’re making the assumption that somehow Americans are going to replace all these people,” Coupal said, “and they won’t.”
