SUMMARY

The January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires have had devastating economic impacts on communities across the region, including undocumented workers living and/or working in the affected areas. Although precise data quantifying the economic impact and job losses for undocumented workers are unavailable, a review of recent reporting and available data highlights how immigrant and undocumented workers across the fire-impacted communities are disproportionately experiencing job displacement, lack of access to relief resources, and workplace exploitation during recovery efforts.

KEY FINDINGS

Immigrant & Undocumented Workforce Representation

• Immigrants, including undocumented workers, make up significant portions of the labor force in the fire-affected areas, particularly in domestic work, construction, and waste management services.

• Community profiles estimate that immigrant populations in the Palisades, Eaton, and Hurst fire burn areas ranged from 16% to 43% of residents, not including those who regularly commuted to these communities for their employment.

Economic Vulnerability & Job Displacement

• Immigrant workers, particularly the undocumented, face heightened economic vulnerability due to a lack of employment benefits, protections, and eligibility for unemployment benefits. Many domestic workers and day laborers, who are predominantly immigrants, are paid daily and lack social safety nets, leading to immediate job loss during and after the fires. Surveys following previous fires indicate the potential for long-term job losses for domestic workers.

• Although Latinos represented 23% of the affected population, they accounted for 36% of the workforce in the impacted regions. An estimated 35,000 Latino-held jobs were at risk of temporary or permanent loss.

Industry-Specific Impacts

• Health and Social Services: Workers in this field are estimated to experience the highest employment disruptions, with projected job-year losses between 3,220 and 6,240. Those employed in domestic work as housekeepers, nannies, and caregivers faced immediate job loss due to home destructions and evacuations. Many are self-employed and ineligible for unemployment benefits.

• Construction: Critical for rebuilding efforts, yet heavily reliant on immigrant labor—57%% of Los Angeles County’s construction workers are immigrants, more than half of whom are undocumented. Unsafe working conditions and potential exploitation is a key concern for workers in this sector.

Barriers & Risks to Recovery

• Undocumented immigrants face significant barriers to accessing government-allocated disaster relief resources, such as FEMA, due to their immigration status. Language barriers also hinder access to critical information and services for some immigrant communities.

• The lack of lawful status makes undocumented workers more vulnerable to exploitation, wage theft, and unsafe working conditions, especially during the recovery phase.

INTRODUCTION

The Los Angeles wildfires have had consequential impacts on the health and economy of the regions and communities ravaged by the disaster. Similar to previous disasters, the impacts of the fires and recovering from the traumatic event have had varying outcomes for different communities. While there is a lack of precise data to assess the extent of the Los Angeles wildfires’ economic impact on undocumented populations living and/or working in the areas directly affected by the fires, ready response reporting in the aftermath of the fires offer an initial analysis on the key role of immigrant labor, including that of undocumented workers, across the fire-affected regions before and after recovery efforts. Findings from a review of recently published data briefs, research reports, and news articles highlight how immigrant laborers, particularly undocumented workers, were among the most economically vulnerable to both temporary and permanent job displacement as a result of the fires. Moreover, these materials suggest that undocumented immigrant laborers will likely play a critical role throughout recovery efforts and yet, there exists major disparities in their access to recovery information, environmentally protective equipment, and government-allocated disaster relief resources.

Data that quantifies the projected losses of the Los Angeles wildfires and approximate economic impact on undocumented workers in the fire-affected regions are limited. However, existing analyses highlight how particular industries – where immigrant and undocumented workforces are overrepresented – are or will be impacted by the fires, such as domestic work (e.g. housekeepers, nannies), agriculture (e.g. farmworkers), construction (e.g. roofers, laborers), and administrative and waste management services (e.g. landscaping, groundskeeping).  This analysis helps paint a more detailed picture of how Los Angeles’s immigrant workers are and will be affected by the fires through a review and synthesis of quantitative findings from recent reporting relevant to immigrant workers and other emergent social-psychological and environmental challenges identified through qualitative accounts. Based on the findings, this analysis offers recommendations for future research and policy development.

BACKGROUND

Community profiles compiled by the Neighborhood Data for Social Change project at USC’s Lusk Center for Real Estate, find that immigrant Angelenos comprised significant shares of the populations across the Palisades, Eaton, and Hurst burn areas. Based on data from the 2023 US Census American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates, the analysis shows that 16% of the 31,602 affected residents in the Palisades Fire burn area were immigrants (~5,056 people); 24% of the 77,547 affected residents in the Eaton Fire burn area were immigrants (~18,611 people); and 43% of the 5,599 affected residents in the Hurst Fire burn area were immigrants (~2,407 people). The number of immigrants impacted by the fires is likely understated with these numbers as the data do not account for immigrants who work in these fire-affected areas and reside elsewhere. These burn areas have been home to sizeable immigrant populations who have been essential parts of everyday life in these communities.

According to data briefs published by the UCLA Latino Policy & Political Institute and UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge, more than 74,000 Latinos were at risk of direct displacement or were displaced due to the Eaton, Palisades, and Hurst Fires. In addition to those living in these regions, Latinos comprised significant shares of the region's workforce, many commuting to these areas from neighborhoods outside those directly impacted by the fires. These reports find that while Latinos comprised just 23% of the population across the three major evacuation zones, they accounted for 36% of all workers in these areas –  this disparity is most pronounced in the Palisades Fire Zone where Latinos represent 7% of the population but hold 34% of jobs. These reports estimate that at least 35,000 jobs held by Latinos are at risk of temporary or permanent loss due to the fires.

INDUSTRIES IMPACTED

Of the industries where immigrant workers, particularly those who are undocumented, make up an important share of the workforce in the county, a February report from the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation’s Institute for Applied Economics finds that jobs categorized under Health and Social Services, defined as “operating or providing health care and social assistance for individuals,” is “estimated to experience the greatest employment disruptions, with job-year losses ranging from 3,220… to 6,240” depending on time to recovery as defined by FEMA standards. The report finds that in the fire-affected Palisades area, Health the medical and caregiving workforce make up 11.9% of impacted jobs in the area. In the Eaton fire area, Health Care and Social Assistance is the largest industry impacted by the fires, representing 16.4% of impacted jobs in the area. The report lays out three recovery scenarios, defined by FEMA standards, which they use to estimate the “Output Impacts of Business Interruption by Industry,” from 2025 to 2029. Industries with large shares of immigrant workers, including those who are undocumented, are expected to face significant disruption as it relates to fiscal and tax losses: Health and Social Services ($372.9 - $742.2 million); Construction ($204.5 - $412.3 million); Administrative and Waste Services ($186.2 - $359.8 million); Accommodation and Food Services ($165.6 - $321.2 million).

Reporting on the experiences of affected workers in the aforementioned industries examine how immigrant workforces are doubly disadvantaged by the economic adversity created by the fires and other disasters due to the lack of employment benefits and protections. One such case is that of domestic labor. A 2020 report produced by UCLA’s Labor Occupational Safety & Health Program found that over 350,000 domestic workers were employed in about 2 million homes across California, with significant majorities of domestic workers being immigrant women of color (95% women; 84% immigrants). In Southern California, the majority of immigrant house cleaners and childcare providers were from Latin America and the Philippines, approximately half of whom are undocumented. Recent reporting on the fires found that across Los Angeles County, 85% of individuals employed as household workers are Latino, 47% of whom are self-employed making them ineligible for unemployment benefits.

The severity of the economic instability created in domestic labor industry by the recent fires has been underscored by Maegan Ortiz, the Executive Director of Instituto de Educación Popular del Sur de California (IDEPSCA), who stated that “domestic workers and day laborers, who are predominantly immigrants, face unique burdens during wildfires because their jobs are often paid by the day and offer few social protections.” IDEPSCA was in regular contact with roughly 5,000 domestic workers in the Greater Los Angeles area, and while only 75 job losses were reported initially, IDEPSCA was working on processing a backlog of calls. In the same reporting, Mayra Chacon, the owner of Ocean Housekeeping that provided home cleaning services to families across the fire-affected regions, employed recent Guatemalan and Mexican immigrants and shared she lost more than 50% of her business overnight due to the fires. A survey conducted after the 2018 Woolsey Fire found that more than half of nearly 200 domestic workers surveyed reported permanently losing their jobs, with many dealing with the financial and emotional fallout of those fires for at least two years.

While domestic labor is but one of several industries employing a significant immigrant workforce in fire-affected areas, recent reporting suggests similar trends in temporary and permanent job displacement are likely across sectors, especially for undocumented populations facing challenges stemming from a lack of economic protections (e.g. unemployment system). Such impact can be detrimental to communities across the county and hamper recovery efforts. In Los Angeles County, Latinos comprise 84% of construction workers and will play a critical role in wildfire recovery efforts. As it has been the case in previous natural disaster recovery efforts, including Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy, it is likely that “across the county, immigrant labor—much of it undocumented—plays a critical role in rebuilding efforts after natural disasters, which are becoming increasingly common due to climate change.” According to the California Immigrant Data Portal, 57% of workers in the construction industry in Los Angeles County are immigrants. More than half of the immigrant workers in the construction industry in Los Angeles County are undocumented—29% of all construction workers in the county. Experts underscore that the representation of immigrant workers in the construction industry “is far higher in residential construction — much of which is nonunionized and not as heavily regulated as large capital projects. The pay is lower, and many workers don’t have the legal status to be in the United States.” Further, the legal violence and enforcement (e.g., ice raids) imposed on undocumented immigrants while they are also looked upon to aid recovery efforts make them all the more vulnerable to exploitation, wage theft, and unsafe working conditions (e.g. lack of protective equipment).

Immigrant and undocumented laborers make up significant shares of the workforce that have and will be a cornerstone of Los Angeles’s wildfire recovery efforts and so economic inequality in the lack of adequate employment benefits and protections affecting workers across this industry needs to be taken into serious consideration when designing future wildfire relief and recovery policies and measures.

ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS

This analysis assesses the impact of the Los Angeles wildfires on immigrant communities who have lived, worked, and/or will work in the fire-affected areas. Several of the reviewed articles and data briefs also identified several ways that immigrants, undocumented populations in particular, will be adversely affected by the Los Angeles Fires and recovery efforts. These reports highlight the need for additional support for immigrant communities to ensure worker protections in environmentally hazardous conditions, language assistance, and access to government emergency aid.

Several of the reviewed articles examined the impact of the Los Angeles wildfires, including wildfire smoke, on Farmworkers in northern Los Angeles and Ventura Counties. These articles documented how over 40,000 farmworkers, many of whom are immigrants, continued to work through smoky, unhealthy air conditions and received little to no protective equipment. Another report, published by UCLA researchers, AAPI Equity Alliance, and the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American, found that language accessibility to critical information and services, such as emergency notification, evacuation orders, and recovery materials, to be a critical challenge faced by over 12,000 Asian immigrants who resided within the evacuation zone. Several of the reports (e.g., Pech et al., 2025; Shah & Schneid 2025; Singh 2025; Reyes-Velarde 2025) highlighted how undocumented status, in a relatively hostile national political terrain that demonizes immigrants, bars undocumented immigrants from federal disaster aid (e.g. FEMA) and discourages them from seeking government assistance, making undocumented immigrants more vulnerable to long-term hardships in recovery efforts.

CONCLUSION

This assessment of the Los Angeles wildfires’ impact on immigrant communities, including undocumented workers, rely on a review of recent articles, data briefs, and reports to build an understanding of how immigrant populations working and/or living in the fire-affected areas were and will continue to be impacted, particularly those who are undocumented. Given the limited data that explicitly quantify the number of undocumented workers residing or employed in the fire-affected regions and the extent of this impact in terms of jobs and wages lost, this analysis focuses on available data and reporting to approximate the impact through the lens of particular industries and qualitative accounts. At the core, this analysis argues that immigrant laborers, undocumented workers in particular, comprise significant workforces across the fire-affected areas and are expected to comprise an important share of workforces throughout recovery efforts. Undocumented immigrants are particularly vulnerable to the economic adversity created by these fires. This critical vulnerability is manufactured by existing systems and measures that limit their access to important resources because of their precarious status, including policies that make undocumented immigrants ineligible for federal emergency relief and adequate protection against exploitation and environmental hazards throughout disaster and recovery stages. This vulnerability highlights the severity and urgency of gathering more precise data to help assess the disproportionate impact of the Los Angeles fires, as well as the subsequent needs of undocumented workers and mixed-status families who may struggle to recover without adequate resources and government aid. Further research should focus on assessing not only the material needs of these workers and their families but also understanding the adverse social-psychological impact of these fires in a particularly hostile national political climate that villainizes immigrants. Remedying these elements will require creative and innovative policy solutions, informed directly through engagement with workers and advocates who have been mobilizing to document and remedy the adverse and disproportionate impacts of the fires on Los Angeles’s undocumented immigrant community.