Worksite Immigration Raids Ramp Up, Stoking Fear In Construction Industry
The U.S. construction industry is bracing for a potentially significant loss of its workforce as sweeps by Immigration and Customs Enforcement spread to workplaces as part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on unauthorized immigrants.
Over the past week, agents have raided construction sites in Florida, a flood control project in New Orleans and the University of Texas San Antonio campus, arresting or detaining immigrant construction workers.
The raids mark a shift from the Trump administration targeting criminals in its immigration crackdowns, which brought a surge of home raids to the apartment industry’s doorstep.
White House officials are confirming a new focus on workplaces, The New York Times reported.
“The number of worksite enforcement actions have tripled this year and it’s going to triple again,” Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, said at a White House press briefing in April.
Workplace raids can yield more arrests than pursuing individuals, and they are more efficient in terms of manpower, the NYT reported. The FBI and other law enforcement agencies have diverted personnel to immigration operations, making raids more feasible, according to the outlet.
“If we can’t arrest them in the community, we’ll arrest them at their worksite,” Homan said during the briefing.
Industries like landscaping, farming and construction have high concentrations of undocumented migrant workers. Goldman Sachs estimates 13% of U.S. construction workers may be undocumented, while other estimates peg the number closer to one-fifth of the industry’s workforce.
Whether Trump intends to aggressively pursue the construction sector remains unclear as raids are sometimes based on tips, the NYT reported. The Department of Homeland Security reported arrests of 2,000 immigrants per day over the past week, up from 600 per day earlier in this year, the article states.
The Supreme Court on May 30 allowed the Trump administration to revoke a Biden-era program that gave temporary residency to more than 500,000 immigrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti and allowed them to work, ramping up the number of immigrants subject to raids.
In addition to stoking fear for workers and employers, worksite raids have far-reaching impacts on the industry, Hispanic Construction Council CEO George Carrillo told Construction Dive.
“They disrupt projects, create uncertainty for businesses and foster fear among workers who simply want to do their jobs and support their families,” Carrillo said.
After the ICE raid in Tallahassee, Florida, in which more than 100 workers were arrested, a number of nearby construction sites paused or shut down work for the day.
Some employers are letting go of workers they suspect to be undocumented or plan to do so, creating further disruption for the labor force and construction timelines.
“If you know you have undocumented workers, and you’re not severing ties with them at this stage, you’re in a position where they’re coming pretty soon,” Chris Thomas, a partner with Holland & Hart law firm in Denver, told the NYT. “If you wait until they arrive on the scene, it’s probably too late.”
Thomas has seen his clients receive notices warning of paperwork discrepancies, indicating workers may be undocumented.
Some construction firm owners, like Gus Hoyas from Cleveland, admit they count on workers who are in the country without permission, the NYT reported.
“They’re undocumented, but we’ve got to do something, because these people are tradesmen — they’re pros in the field,” Hoyas told the NYT. “You get rid of these folks, and it’s going to kill us in the construction arena.”
