Snow attacks in construction threaten a sector based on migration | Immigration in the United States

Half of the 200 workers who worked last Thursday in the construction of a student’s residence near the Florida State University did not return to their homes. They were arrested for the operation set up by the Immigration Authorities (ICE), Florida Highway Petrol and other federal and state agencies. This is not the first time that happening. A few days ago, 31 workers were arrested in Laarredo (Texas) in two works and another 33 people faced the same destination in Wildwood (Florida). They are attacks It is already in crisis due to lack of offer.

These arrests were unregistered in one field and one of the four workers, according to the National Association of Housing Constructors (NAHB, its Acronim in English), 31% Latin. A good part of the prisoners in Florida comes from Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador. Public policies and Economics Professor at Michigan University, Betsy Stevenson, predicted that half of them were not registered. This is a one percentage that also operates the Urban Institute, which reflects that it is about 54% unregistered.

“When the main source of working power is affected, the possibility of the growth or management of the housing supply,” said Gezheelz-Hermoso, a researcher and co-author of the study. “These attacks are going to withdraw many workers from works”, and for the fear of expanding to immigrants in the country or even in the country.

Stevenson thinks that most workers, even those who are legal in the country feel Go to work and worry about meeting snow. “The current administration stops without adequate process and sports, so workers must be careful when exposing themselves in the risk of danger to their own expulsion or relative.”

Gonzalez-Hermoso calls him Chill EffectThe impact of depressing leads to people who are in principle Less exposure to attacks.

Investigations of the Urban Institute estimate that more than 42% of construction workers are dedicated to residential work. Due to the less offer than demand, the sector has an important weight for migrant workers in states that are already under strong pressure. Especially in California, Texas, Nevada, New York, Florida, Maryland and New Jersey.

In the first administration of George Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump Memo It has frozen these types of attacks. These orders were immediately canceled in Trump’s second command.

For the urban researcher, the risk is not high, the works are without workers, but the projects will be erupted over time. “Contractors look for other workers but they have to find them and raise salaries to attract them.” In conjunction with changes in financing and other areas – in the form of tariffs for construction materials, for example – house works are more expensive, which does not contribute to reducing sale or rent.

Finding more workers is not an easy task, because according to the President and CEO Michael Bellaman of the Association of Construction and Contractors (ABC), there is a deficit of 439,000 workers in this sector in 2025. “There is something that emphasizes the critical need to reform our immigration system,” Bellaman said: “Born in Workers. They need legally security They can continue to work without fear of revenge. ”

The National Immigration Forum’s Policy Manager and Lobbying Arturo Castellanos, the lack of local population growth, stated changes to the legislators of both parties to address the shortage of workers in many sectors. Castellanos explained that the visas used to work in the country, not only in construction, but also in the construction of the H -2B and EB -3 -, the lack of staff in this sector.

“You need to increase the number of visas because they will be quickly exhausted,” he said. For H-2B, for example, there is a limit of 66,000 per year. Castellanos recalled that the last great immigration version was in 1986, and at other times, “Another country, another economy is a lurking war … Now it is necessary to attend the United States’s other needs.”

The expert recalled, most of the migrants, document and unregistered Helen Y. Milton In Florida: “Who will rebuild when the new disaster comes?”