The U.S. construction industry is facing a worsening labor shortage due to the Trump administration's hard-line immigration crackdown. With one in three construction workers foreign-born, continuing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) checks and raids have sown anxiety among both authorized and unauthorized workers. The industry said delays and surging expense are already a reality.
According to U.S. public radio NPR on the 6th (local time), Rurik Palomino, who is in charge of the rehabilitation of the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge in Washington, D.C., said, "There is plenty of work, but not enough workers," and noted, "ICE checkpoints have been set up on the Baltimore–Washington Parkway, and workers are reluctant to come to work." Palomino said he hires only people with legal status, but added that even rumors of crackdowns often shrink the workforce.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, since the start of President Trump's second term, ICE has deported 400,000 people and 1.6 million have left voluntarily. In Florida and Minnesota, dozens were arrested in construction site sweeps, and checks continued near a materials store in the Los Angeles (LA) area. In a survey by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), 92% of corporations said they are struggling to hire, and 28% said they suffered direct or indirect harm from crackdowns.
Ken Simonson, AGC's chief economist, said, "If a worker misses even a day, work stops and expense rise immediately," and added, "If you can't raise the roof, you can't complete the building." He warned, "If law enforcement tightens further, this is only the beginning."
Sergio Barajas, head of the National Hispanic Construction Alliance, said, "Fear, more than the number of raids, is the problem," noting, "Latino workers are giving up going to work regardless of whether they are registered." He said some companies are removing their logos from trucks to avoid crackdowns.
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) estimated that the labor shortage causes about $11 billion in losses each year. NAHB President Jim Tobin said, "The labor shortage was a structural problem even before the crackdowns," adding, "The United States, by becoming a college-centered society, lowered the value of skilled trades on its own."
Kenny Malik, who has worked in plumbing for 30 years, said, "Immigrants work while risking deportation," adding, "Without them, America's construction industry does not run." Malik supports Trump but added, "If the government takes away workers, the industry will collapse."
Nick Theodore, director of the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois, said, "Unauthorized immigrants were already the revenue base of the construction industry," analyzing that "crackdowns are deepening the shortage of skilled workers and the skills gap." Mark Erlich, a researcher at Harvard Law School, said, "Falling unionization rates and political crackdowns are simultaneously amplifying wage stagnation and management uncertainty."
Palomino said, "The solution lies in expanding legal visas," adding, "I came to the United States with one bag, but now three families work at my company. This is the real American dream."
Economists said that while mass deportation policies may rally political supporters in the short term, in the long run they could boomerang by delaying housing supply due to construction labor gaps and by adding inflationary pressure. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) analyzed that if 1.4 million construction workers disappear, productivity losses could trigger the loss of up to 860,000 jobs in a chain reaction.