A record number of small business owners have raised wages for their American workers as President Trump’s administration has ushered in a new era of a tighter labor market with strict immigration enforcement.

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) monthly jobs report found that a record number of small businesses say they have increased the wages of their workers to keep and attract more qualified workers.

The report found:

The number of small businesses that have raised wages has increased a net 31 percent, a 4 percent increase since last month, and the highest level since December 2000

The number of small businesses that plan to raise wages has increased a net 24 percent, a 1 percent increase since last month, and the highest level since December 1989

The news of historic wage increases for small business workers comes in an era under the Trump administration where economic nationalism has been spearheaded by strict immigration enforcement, specifically in the interior of the country.

Trump’s Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States Executive Order increased the number of illegal aliens—many of which are illegal workers—who were deported out of the interior of the U.S. in Fiscal Year 2017 by nearly 40 percent.

Compare that figure to the number of illegal aliens living in the interior of the country who were deported in that same time frame under former President Obama, when less than 45,000 illegal aliens were deported.

Number of illegal aliens deported from the interior in Fiscal Years 2016 and 2017

Most recently, as Breitbart California reported, federal immigration officials have been conducted massive routine sweeps of detaining illegal aliens, with the most recent raid resulting in the detainment of at least 160 illegal aliens.

While the decreased pressure of illegal immigration has resulted in pay raises for America’s working and middle class, especially workers in the U.S. garment industry, those wage increases remain threatened by mass legal immigration and a potential amnesty for millions of illegal aliens.

The business lobby remains committed to flooding the U.S. labor market with low-skilled foreign workers to drive down American wages via the legal immigration system, a commitment that is backed by the pro-mass immigration GOP mega-donors, the Koch brothers.

For example, included in the news release of the NFIB’s small business jobs report, NFIB President and CEO Juanita Duggan and NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg complained that the wage increases were the result of “labor shortages,” a term often used by the business lobby to stress their desires for a flooded, cheap labor workforce.

“Small business owners are very optimistic and ready to hire new employees and raise wages, but finding qualified workers is an increasing challenge, rising to the top of their concerns,” Duggan said. [Emphasis added] “Small firms are hiring and paying at levels rarely seen in the history of NFIB’s surveys,” said Dunkelberg. “Only an increase in the labor force and an increase in the participation rate can provide relief from the impact of labor shortages.” [Emphasis added]

Though pro-cheap labor economists claim the so-called “labor shortages” are detrimental to U.S. businesses, the NFIB report admits that the reduced number of workers is not stopping them from hiring more workers and growing their small businesses.

The report noted that the number of small business owners saying now is a good time to expand has increased by 32 percent. This is the highest level since NFIB began the survey in 1973.This is the highest level since NFIB began the survey in 1973.

The Washington, DC-imposed cheap labor economic model of importing more than one million new legal immigrants every year to compete mostly for working and middle-class jobs against Americans has resulted in decades of stagnant and even decreased wages for U.S. workers.