Donald Trump promised to remake the American economy if voters returned him to the White House. Now that they have, his plans are likely to hit Minnesota more painfully than other parts of the nation.

The economy and immigration were top issues for Minnesota voters on Tuesday, according to Associated Press exit polls. Yet our state’s economic pressures are not the same as those that dominated the presidential campaign rhetoric.

The influx of undocumented immigrants from the nation’s southern border has been far smaller in Minnesota, which is so distant from it. Estimates vary but one that seems consistent is that around 30,000 people arrived over the past couple years, a figure that amounts to about 1% of the state’s workforce.

Not all are working but, even so, Minnesota’s workforce hasn’t been damaged by their presence. In fact, the workforce is actually smaller than it was before the pandemic shutdowns in spring 2020.

If Trump follows through on plans to reduce the number of illegal immigrants in the country, that shrinking of the nation’s labor force will add to the pressure Minnesota’s employers feel. Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, as an Ohio senator and on the campaign trail with Trump, has repeatedly said millions of Americans have been pushed to the employment sidelines because of competition from immigrants.

It’s a theory that, if tested by a mass deportation of recent immigrants, will be felt more acutely in Minnesota. The state, like many in the northeast and Midwest with older populations, has a greater proportion of people out of the workforce because they are retired, not because they are discouraged from seeking jobs.

In the last four years, Minnesota at times had the lowest rate of unemployment in the country and the highest rate of labor force participation. Those two things make for tight labor conditions. Today, Minnesota jockeys with a handful of other states for the nation’s tightest labor availability.

During Trump’s first term in office and in the years since, the real question in Minnesota has been: How can we get more workers?