Garment factories in the U.S. have been staffed by immigrants for generations, she says: Southern and eastern European immigrants in the early 20th century, Latin American and Asian immigrants in the 21st. “Unlike fashion design, garment production jobs are not glamorous positions to which many Americans aspire, but those jobs have long been rungs on the ladder of the American dream,” Scafidi says.

Industry workers are genuinely concerned that, should policy and enactment keep going in this direction, it could very well result in a collapse of the American fashion industry. “Without immigrants, there is a risk that sewing machines will go silent and warehouse doors will remain shut, and the dramatic decline in garment production in the U.S .over the past 50 years will finally reach the point of extinction,” Scafidi says.

The irony is that this will also be a major hit to American jobs, Schulte says. “The fashion industry is a great example of how the ability to attract really talented people from around the world, for a number of different jobs, not only helps grow the economy overall but creates jobs for native born Americans,” he says. He’ll often hear of brands that need to hire skilled craftspeople trained elsewhere, who can come to the U.S. to support the brand. Their work enables the brand to employ more Americans, from trainees, to photographers, to models. “It’s an ecosystem. And if you take some part of the ecosystem away, the whole thing is going to collapse.”

Crespo expects that the U.S. fashion industry would shrink drastically without this labor force. “Most Americans simply don’t have the training or cultural connection to this kind of work, not because they can’t, but because the systems we live in haven’t prioritized preserving it,” she says. Mena, meanwhile, hopes to see more brands speak out. “Culture moves through brands and if you profit from the culture but disappear when it matters most, then you were never really part of it,” he says.

“Without serious change–both in policy and public perception–we risk gutting an industry that should be part of America’s economic and cultural resurgence,” Miller says. “We need to protect and invest in the people who are holding it together, not make it harder for them to work and live here.”