By Tim Reed
Mobile, Alabama (Reuters) -Alabama Sky’s Crashing Alabama, disappointed slave Robertson, head of the construction site, explores 84,000 square feet, mainly built a recreation center near the Persian Gulf of Persian.
The site is ominously quiet. Last month, the $ 20 million project was on the way to end until November 1st. Robertson now says he is looking at a three -week delay after about half of his workers – frightened by immigration and the application of customs decisions at work in Florida 230 miles (370 kilometers) – have remained far away.
Immigration raids on construction sites – part of the expansion of Donald Trump repression of jobs across the country – cause major interruptions in the construction industry, according to Reuters interviews.
“The threats and the reporting of raids made workers not appear in jobs, just aims to make crews for fear of attack,” says Jim Tobin, CEO of the National Association of Housing Builders, which has 140,000 members.
While immigration agents have strengthened their raids in other jobs in recent weeks, holding agricultural workers, restaurant staff, meat and workers’ packages on the day, the construction industry is particularly vulnerable to interruptions in labor supply, according to Reuters interviews.
Reuters interviews 14 people in construction – executive directors, employees of the Site Commercial Association and Supervisory Bodies – who stated that raids caused the project and exceeding costs and exacerbating the existing shortage of qualified labor. They said it was too early to quantify the scale of damage to lost labor and revenue.
Some of the people that Reuters are talking to were in Texas and Florida, where there are several attacks. ICE is also active in California, Illinois, Washington, Louisiana and Massachusetts, according to a construction association officers.
About 11 million people in the United States illegally about 1.4 million work in construction, according to the Institute for Migration Policy, a non -partisan cerebral trust – more than any other industry.
Construction costs reached a record high in May 2024, but then slid by 3.5% last May, according to the US Bureau, an annual decline, which is rarely observed outside the recessions.
Pressing deportation begins to influence public opinion. Trump’s public -approval rating for immigration fell to 41% in a Reuters/IPSOS poll this month, the deepest after his return to the White House.
Trisha McLaflin, a spokesman for the Ministry of Homeland Security, who leads the ice, said such surgery had helped fight dangerous activities such as labor and operation.
“Job implementation remains a cornerstone from our efforts to protect public safety, national security and economic stability,” she said.
Spending
It is in places such as the Robertson Construction Places that the impact of raids is most clear because of the potential of the cost of the spiral with the prolongation of delays.
Robertson says the problems began the day after about 100 workers were detained with immigration raid in Talahasi, Florida, May 29.
The bigger part of his workforce of more than 100 workers are immigrants from Mexico and Central America and almost everyone remained far from work for several days. Seven weeks later, just over half of these immigrant workers failed back, leaving Robertson significantly short staff.
The roof team of 22 people is up to 12. The roof, which should be completed so far, is not completed, exposing parts of the interior of rain during the year when thunderstorms are common.
Electrical work, water supply, finishing the dry wall and the installation of sports equipment are behind the schedule.
Robertson said his company faced a potential $ 84,000 additional delay costs, according to the liquidated damage clause of $ 4,000 for each day when the project continues after its final period from November 1.
“I’m a Trump supporter, but I just don’t think the raids are the answer,” he said.
He said that the company and its subcontractors have already confirmed that workers are legally in the country through the government program for electronic inspections, a widely used online system that checks the admissibility of employment.
Industry employees have noted that the electronic check system is not flawless as immigrants can produce false documents.
Robertson said that even Spanish workers who are in the United States are legally scared not to be retained by ice “because of the color of their skin. They are afraid because they look the part.”
Tim Harrison, whose company is building the Recreation Center, said it could not easily replace construction workers born in Mexico and Central America with Americans born to locals because most have no skills.
Finding replacement workers is especially difficult in Alabama, which has a strict labor market, he said. The state has only 3.2% unemployment.
“The world of performers is full of Republicans. I am not anti-sha. We support this
The company’s executive directors have indicated a chronic lack of investment in the training of native Americans in construction skills such as plaster, carpentry, roofs and welding.
The White House and Labor Department indicated an enforcement order signed by Trump in April, which aims to support more than a million qualified apprenticeships annually, including the skills needed in construction.
“There is no shortage of American minds and hands to grow our workforce, and President Trump’s agenda to create jobs for US workers is the commitment of this administration to take advantage of this unused potential while fulfilling our mandate to implement our immigration laws,” said Abigail Jackson.
The Ministry of Labor in June has established the Immigration Policy Service aimed at optimizing temporary work visas for foreign workers.
Hazard
For Brent Taylor, who runs a construction company in Tampa, Florida, the impact of ice raids exceeded the filling of jobs. This directly affects his labor costs.
Immigrants report almost a quarter of Florida’s population. Taylor said he had lost between one -third to half of his workers with subcontractors in deals such as roofs, concrete work and a dry wall.
And his subcontractors have to pay more to replace them, he said.
Some of its subcontractors immigrant workers require additional salaries to fulfill the risk of being detained by ice. This pushes individual daily labor costs up to $ 400 to $ 500, which is between $ 200 and $ 300 a day.
“They are factors at the heart of danger,” Taylor said. “And then I will pass it on to my client, whether it is the owner of a home or the owner of a commercial building.”
Construction trade associations, together with representatives of agriculture, hotel, restaurant and other sectors, traveled to Washington this month to lobby employees at the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Internal Security for Reform.
Most want a process that workers born abroad in the United States, who have been undergoing previous legislative status to work on construction sites. This is very unlikely to pass a congress because many Republican legislators are opposed to the idea.
Brian Tarmail, Vice President of Public Affairs at America’s associates, said the group emphasizes the harm caused by the raids of the icy meetings with DHS and labor officers. They called on the Trump administration to focus on people in the United States illegally who have criminal records, and to find ways to allow others to work.
“For 40 years, this country has not done a little to encourage or prepare American career workers in areas such as construction,” Turmail said.
He said the employees were listening to, but the delegation left the impression that the Trump administration believes that workers in the country could illegally be replaced with lower income Americans who are now required to work to access health insurance benefits, according to a recent republican cost bill.
“The administration employees are very resistant to everything that makes fun of amnesty. This is a place where they just won’t go,” said another employee of the Commercial Association who attended meetings with administration officials.
Harrison, CEO of Alabama construction, said he knew many contractors facing exceeding costs and delays because the workers were hiding.
“This is because of the fear that is there, the hysteria that is there,” he said.
(Tim Reed reporting on mobile devices. Additional reporting from Jorge Garcia in Mobile and Dan Burns in New York. Edit by Ross Kolvin and Susan Goldenberg)