President Trump has pledged to conduct the largest mass deportation campaign in American history. Fulfilling that pledge would harm the country in many ways, including by weaking American entrepreneurship.

A recent study confirmed that,

Start-ups founded by native-immigrant teams outperformed start-ups founded solely by natives or immigrants. Three years after their inception, start-ups with native-immigrant teams employed 20 percent more people than native-only start-ups.

Furthermore,

Native-immigrant start-ups were also significantly more likely to receive funding than native-only start-ups, and they raised substantially more capital than both native-only and immigrant-only start-ups. Start-ups with native-immigrant teams were also more likely to be acquired and more likely to initiate an IPO than either native-only or immigrant-only start-ups.

The authors provide evidence for three explanations:

[Native-immigrant startups] had access to a more diverse, highly skilled labor pool… greater access to investor capital… [and] greater access to product markets.

This study highlights (yet again) that immigrants benefit the American economy.

This article appeared on Substack on July 16, 2025.