Andrew C. McCarthy Explains States to You, Having Briefly Glanced at Constitution Once

National Review's Guide to Immigration: Ignore the Economy, Blame the Democrats, Collect Those Subscriptions

On February 19 2026 Andrew C. McCarthy, writing in National Review, argues that illegal immigration is simply a law enforcement problem and blames Democrats for the current situation. His argument has surface appeal, particularly for those who favor stronger border enforcement. However, when we examine the constitutional framework and the practical realities of the American economy, McCarthy’s analysis falls short in ways that deserve scrutiny.

McCarthy is a former federal prosecutor and a knowledgeable legal mind, so I will treat his arguments with the intellectual rigor they deserve. I will not engage in personal attacks or partisan name-calling. I will, however, ask the hard questions that good analysis requires.

The Constitutional Reality: The Tenth Amendment Matters

McCarthy frames immigration enforcement as a straightforward federal matter that Democrats have undermined. What his argument conveniently ignores is the constitutional architecture established by the Tenth Amendment, which explicitly reserves to the states all powers not delegated to the federal government.

The anti-commandeering principle, established by the Supreme Court in Printz v. United States (1997), prohibits the federal government from forcing state and local officials to enforce federal law. As Georgetown University constitutional law professor Michele Goodwin explained regarding the lawsuits filed by Minnesota and Illinois, the Tenth Amendment establishes the power balance between state and federal governments, often described as federalism (Goodwin, 2026).

The Constitution states that powers not granted to the United States nor prohibited to the states are reserved for the states or the people. This means states retain sovereign power to govern within their borders, and the federal government cannot impose its will on states unless such power has been granted by Congress or the Constitution (U.S. Const. amend. X).

When critics like McCarthy call for mass deportation operations without acknowledging this constitutional reality, they are proposing an approach that multiple state governments and federal courts have challenged on constitutional grounds. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison stated that the federal surge of immigration agents violated the Tenth Amendment by disrupting the state’s ability to protect residents (Ellison, 2026).

In January 2026, Minnesota and Illinois filed separate but related lawsuits against the Department of Homeland Security, arguing that the deployment of thousands of ICE agents constituted a federal invasion of state sovereignty. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker stated that the state would hold the Trump administration accountable for its unlawful tactics, unnecessary escalation, and blatant abuse of power (Pritzker, 2026).

The Supreme Court addressed the balance between federal and state authority in immigration enforcement in Arizona v. United States (2012). The Court ruled 8-0 that while Congress has exclusive power over immigration, states cannot be compelled to enforce federal immigration law. The decision recognized that Congress has always envisioned joint federal-state immigration enforcement and explicitly encourages state officers to share information and cooperate with federal colleagues, but participation remains voluntary at the state level.

The Economic Reality: Industries Depend on Immigrant Labor

Perhaps the most significant gap in McCarthy’s argument is his complete failure to acknowledge which American industries rely on immigrant labor. This is not a minor oversight. It is a fundamental misunderstanding of how the American economy actually functions.

According to research from the Pew Research Center analyzing U.S. Census Bureau data, immigrants comprise approximately 20% of the American labor force. In certain critical industries, that percentage is much higher (Kramer, 2025).

The data show that in agriculture, fishing, and forestry, immigrant workers make up approximately 45% of the workforce. In construction, approximately 30% of workers are immigrants. In private household services, approximately 43% are immigrants, and in the broader service sector, approximately 24% are immigrants (Kramer, 2025).

Undocumented immigrants specifically make up 4% to 5% of the total U.S. workforce, but represent 15% to 20% or more in industries such as crop production, food processing, and construction (Passel & Cohn, 2024).

The consequences of ignoring this reality are already visible. After the Trump administration intensified immigration enforcement, agricultural producers reported crop losses because workers disappeared from job sites. In Texas, construction sites became quiet because few American citizens are willing to perform the dangerous physical labor that immigrant workers have traditionally done (Associated General Contractors of America, 2025).

The Associated General Contractors of America reported that approximately 92% of construction companies faced project delays due to labor shortages (Associated General Contractors of America, 2025). These are not abstract concerns. These are real economic consequences affecting real American businesses and consumers.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has acknowledged that immigration has been a key factor in labor supply growth, noting that the American economy has exceeded expectations in part because of labor supply gains from immigration (Powell, 2025).

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City released a report in May 2025 stating that immigration over the past two years has been essential to stabilizing the American labor market and curbing wage-driven inflationary pressures. The report concluded that without immigrant labor, the American economy could not achieve a soft landing (Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, 2025).

D Dallas Federal Reserve Bank labor economist Pia Orrenius stated that immigrants typically account for at least 50% of U.S. employment growth. The substantial cessation of border inflows over the past four years has had a huge impact on job creation capability (Orrenius, 2025).

The Law Enforcement Reality: Complexities Abound

McCarthy describes immigration as a law enforcement problem, which sounds straightforward. However, the actual practice of immigration enforcement is far more complicated than his framing suggests.

Recent federal court decisions have reinforced that local jurisdictions cannot constitutionally hold someone on an ICE detainer without a warrant or probable cause, and that the Fourth Amendment provides important checks on the government’s ability to arrest and detain people (Seattle Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, 2024).

The Minneapolis shooting death of Renee Good by an ICE agent, followed by the murder of Alex Pretti, illustrates the volatile situations that arise when federal agents conduct enforcement operations in American cities. These incidents have sparked both protests and legal challenges that raise legitimate questions about tactics and accountability (Ellison, 2026).

According to court filings, federal agents used chemical agents including tear gas against peaceful protesters, conducted raids at schools and hospitals without proper warrants, and were involved in confrontations that resulted in the deaths of American citizens (Minnesota v. Department of Homeland Security, 2026).

What McCarthy Gets Wrong

Let me be clear about where McCarthy’s argument fails:

First, he frames the problem as one of Democratic obstruction without acknowledging that constitutional federalism limits federal power to compel state cooperation. This is not a partisan point. It is a matter of constitutional law that courts have repeatedly affirmed, regardless of who occupies the White House (FindLaw, 2024).

Second, he ignores the economic dependencies that immigrant labor satisfies. The American economy has structured itself around immigrant labor in key sectors, and pretending otherwise does not make the dependency disappear. It only makes the resulting disruptions more severe (Kramer, 2025).

Third, he treats immigration as purely a legal problem requiring enforcement, when it is also an economic reality, a humanitarian challenge, and a question of national identity that requires balanced solutions rather than one-dimensional approaches.

The Center for Immigration Studies estimated in 2024 that there are about 14 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States. The most recent detailed breakdown by sector and state comes from the Pew Research Center’s analysis of Census data from 2022, which found that there were an estimated 8.3 million undocumented immigrants who were part of the workforce, out of 11 million total in the country at that time (Passel & Cohn, 2024).

A More Honest Framework

Immigration enforcement is genuinely important. The rule of law matters, and nations have the right to control their borders. However, honest policy discussion requires acknowledging several realities simultaneously:

The federal government cannot simply force states to do its bidding, regardless of which party controls the White House. The anti-commandeering doctrine, as established in Printz v. United States (1997), explicitly prohibits this (Printz v. United States, 1997).

American industries depend on immigrant labor in ways that enforcement-only approaches disrupt. Agriculture, construction, hospitality, and healthcare all rely heavily on immigrant workers (Kramer, 2025).

The constitutional framework establishes limits on federal power that cannot be wished away. Courts have consistently ruled that states have sovereignty rights that the federal government must respect (New York v. United States, 1992).

Policy solutions that acknowledge these realities will be more durable than those that ignore them.

McCarthy is a smart commentator who has made contributions to legal and policy discourse. On immigration, however, his argument suffers from the same weakness that afflicts much of our political discourse: it substitutes slogans for analysis and blame for problem-solving.

The American people deserve better than that. They deserve arguments that acknowledge complexity and propose solutions that can actually work within constitutional constraints and economic realities. McCarthy’s law-enforcement-only framework fails that test.

If you too wish to know absolutely nothing about which industries employ immigrants while having extremely confident opinions about them, Andrew C. McCarthy awaits you here: https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2026/04/illegal-immigration-is-a-law-enforcement-problem/

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Works Cited

Associated General Contractors of America. (2025). *Construction workforce shortages report*. https://www.agc.org/

Ellison, K. (2026, January 12). Press conference on lawsuit against Department of Homeland Security. Minnesota Attorney General’s Office.

Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. (2025, May). *Immigration and the labor market*. https://www.kansascityfed.org/

FindLaw. (2024). *The Tenth Amendment: Reserving power for the states*. https://constitution.findlaw.com/amendment10.html

Goodwin, M. (2026, January 15). Interview regarding Minnesota and Illinois lawsuits against federal immigration enforcement. CNN.

Kramer, S. (2025). Immigrant workers in the U.S. labor market. *Pew Research Center*. https://www.pewresearch.org/

Minnesota v. Department of Homeland Security, No. 26-cv-00428 (D. Minn. Jan. 12, 2026).

New York v. United States, 505 U.S. 144 (1992).

Orrenius, P. (2025). Labor market effects of immigration changes. *Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas*. https://www.dallasfed.org/

Passel, J. S., & Cohn, D. (2024). Unauthorized immigrant workers in the U.S. labor force. *Pew Research Center*. https://www.pewresearch.org/

Powell, J. (2025). Remarks on the economic outlook. *Federal Reserve Board*. https://www.federalreserve.gov/

Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 898 (1997).

Pritzker, J. B. (2026, January 13). Statement on lawsuit against federal immigration enforcement. Office of the Governor of Illinois.

Seattle Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs. (2024). *Frequently asked questions about local city-level immigration policy*. https://www.seattle.gov/iandraffairs/issues-and-policies/seattle-immigration-policy-faq

United States v. Arizona, 567 U.S. 387 (2012).

U.S. Constitution, amend. X.