{"id":33621,"date":"2024-10-19T01:09:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-19T06:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=33621"},"modified":"2024-10-31T22:29:01","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T03:29:01","slug":"trump-vows-to-deport-millions-builders-say-it-would-drain-their-crews-and-drive-up-home-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=33621","title":{"rendered":"Trump vows to deport millions. Builders say it would drain their crews and drive up home costs."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Both presidential candidates promise to build more homes<\/a>. One promises to deport hundreds of thousands of people who build them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former President Donald Trump\u2019s pledge<\/a> to \u201claunch the largest deportation operation in the history of our country\u201d would hamstring construction firms already facing labor shortages and push record home prices<\/a> higher, say industry leaders, contractors and economists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt would be detrimental to the construction industry and our labor supply and exacerbate our housing affordability problems,\u201d said Jim Tobin, CEO of the National Association of Home Builders. The trade group considers foreign-born workers, regardless of legal status, \u201ca vital and flexible source of labor\u201d to builders, estimating they fill 30% of trade jobs<\/a> like carpentry, plastering, masonry and electrical roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either I make half as much money or I up my prices. And who ultimately pays for that? The homeowner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BRENT TAYLOR, PRESIDENT OF TAYLOR CONSTRUCTION GROUP, TAMPA, FLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants<\/a> were living in the U.S. as of 2022, the latest federal data shows, down from an 11.8 million peak in 2007. The construction sector employs an estimated 1.5 million undocumented workers, or 13% of its total workforce \u2014 a larger share than any other, according to data the Pew Research Center provided to NBC News. Industry experts say their rates are higher in Sun Belt states like Florida and Texas, and more pronounced in residential than in commercial construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Brent Taylor, home building has been \u201ca very, very difficult industry the past few years, and it seems to only be getting worse.\u201d His five-person, Tampa-based business hires subcontractors to perform all the labor, and if those firms\u2019 employees \u201cshow up on my jobsite because they work for that company, I don\u2019t know if they\u2019re legal or not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The labor pool is tight already, with the U.S. construction industry still\u00a0looking to fill 370,000 open positions<\/a>, according to federal data. If work crews dwindle further, \u201cnow I can only do 10 jobs a year instead of 20,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cEither I make half as much money or I up my prices. And who ultimately pays for that? The homeowner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump hasn\u2019t detailed how\u00a0his proposed \u201cwhole of government\u201d effort<\/a>\u00a0to remove\u00a0up to 20 million people<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 far more than the undocumented population \u2014\u00a0would work, but he has made it central to his housing pitch. The Republican nominee claims mass deportations would free up homes for U.S. citizens and lower prices, though\u00a0few economists agree<\/a>. The idea has also drawn skepticism on logistical grounds, with some analysts saying\u00a0its costs would be \u201castronomical.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doubts also run high among homebuilders that Trump would deliver on his promise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019d lose so many people that you couldn\u2019t put a crew together to frame a house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to happen,\u201d Stan Marek, CEO of the Marek Family of Companies, a Texas-based specialty subcontracting firm, said of industry colleagues. \u201cYou\u2019d lose so many people that you couldn\u2019t put a crew together to frame a house.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bryan Dunn, an-Arizona based senior vice president at Big-D Construction, a major Southwest firm, called \u201cthe idea that they could actually move that many people\u201d out of the country \u201calmost laughable.\u201d The proposal has left those in the industry \u201ctrying to figure out how much is political fearmongering,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But while Trump has a history of floating outlandish ideas without seriously pursuing them \u2014 like buying Greenland<\/a> \u2014 he has embraced other once-radical policies that reset the terms of political debate<\/a> despite fierce criticism and litigation. That is especially true with immigration, where his administration diverted Pentagon money<\/a> to build a border wall, banned travel from several Muslim-majority countries and separated migrant children<\/a> from their parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump has emphasized his deportation pitch on the stump, at times deploying racist rhetoric like claiming thousands of immigrants are committing murders<\/a> because \u201cit\u2019s in their genes.\u201d This month he accused immigrant gangs of having \u201cinvaded and conquered\u201d cities like Aurora, Colorado, which local authorities deny<\/a>, saying they need federal assistance but want no part<\/a> in mass deportations. Still, recent polling<\/a> has found broad support for removing people who came to the U.S. illegally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPresident Trump\u2019s mass deportation of illegal immigrants will not only make our communities safer but will save Americans from footing the bill for years to come,\u201d Taylor Rogers, a Republican National Committee spokesperson for the campaign, said in a statement, referring to undocumented people\u2019s use of taxpayer-funded social services and other federal programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that the former president\u2019s remarks about genetics were \u201cclearly referring to murderers, not migrants.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tobin said the NAHB has real concerns about the deportation proposal but is engaging with both campaigns. It has called on<\/a> policymakers to \u201clet builders build\u201d<\/a> by easing zoning and other regulatory hurdles and improving developers\u2019 access to financing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have to have a serious conversation in this country about immigration policy and reform, and we can no longer delay it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe rhetoric on immigration, it\u2019s at 11,\u201d Tobin said. \u201cWe have to have a serious conversation in this country about immigration policy and reform, and we can no longer delay it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marek, who has long advocated<\/a> for more ways for undocumented people to work legally in construction, said reforms are decades overdue. As an employer, \u201cI do everything I can to make sure everybody\u2019s legal,\u201d he said, even as the industry\u2019s hunger for low-cost labor has created a shadow economy that he says often exploits<\/a> the undocumented workers it depends upon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need them. They\u2019re building our houses \u2014 have been for 30 years,\u201d he said. \u201cLosing the workers would devastate our companies, our industry and our economy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is evidence that foreign-born construction workers help keep the housing market in check. An analysis released in December 2022<\/a> by the George W. Bush Institute and Southern Methodist University found U.S. metro areas with the fastest-growing immigrant populations had the lowest building costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cImmigrant construction workers in Sun Belt metros like Raleigh, Nashville, Houston, and San Antonio have helped these cities sustain their housing cost advantage over coastal cities despite rapid growth in housing demand,\u201d the authors wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But builders need many more workers as it is. \u201cThe math is just not there\u201d to sustain a blow from mass deportations, said Ron Hetrick, a senior labor economist at the workforce analytics firm Lightcast. \u201cThat would be incredibly disruptive\u201d and cause \u201ca very, very significant hit on home construction,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Private employers in the field have been adding jobs for the past decade, with employment levels now topping 8 million<\/a>, over 1 million more since the pandemic, according to payroll processor ADP. But as Hetrick noted, \u201cthe average high school student is not aspiring to do this work,\u201d and the existing workforce is aging \u2014 the average homebuilder is 57 years old<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Undocumented workers would likely flee ahead of any national deportation effort, Hetrick said, even though many have been in the U.S. for well over a decade. He expects such a policy would trigger an exodus of people with legal authorization, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s exactly what happened in Florida,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, the state\u2019s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, enacted a series<\/a> of restrictions and penalties<\/a> to deter the employment of undocumented workers. Many immigrant workers hastily left the state<\/a> even before the policies took effect, with social media videos showing some construction sites sitting empty<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese laws show that they have no idea what we do,\u201d said Luciano, a carpenter who is originally from Mexico and has worked on residential builds across South Florida for the past decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo one else would work in the conditions in which we work,\u201d the 40-year-old said in Spanish, asking to be identified by his first name because he lacks legal immigration status, despite living in the U.S. for over 20 years. Workers on jobsites \u201chave an entry time but no exit time,\u201d often logging 70-hour weeks in rain and extreme heat, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taylor recalled fellow Florida builders\u2019 panic at the time of the statewide crackdown but said he reassured them, \u201cLook, just give it six months. We don\u2019t have enough people to enforce it, so they\u2019re coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republican state Rep. Rick Roth, who voted for the measure, later conceded that Florida was unprepared for the destabilization it would cause and urged immigrant residents<\/a> not to flee, saying the law \u201cis not as bad as you heard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some workers returned after realizing the policies weren\u2019t being rigorously enforced, Taylor said: \u201cSure enough, now things are more normal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeSantis\u2019 office didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Arizona in 2010 enacted what were then some of the toughest immigration restrictions in the country, Dunn was working in Tempe as an executive at a construction management firm. As the legislation rolled out, he said, \u201ca lot of people moved away, and they just never came back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time much of the law was overturned in 2012, he said, \u201cArizona had a bad rap\u201d relative to other states that \u201cwere a lot more open and just less of a hassle to go work in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dunn, a Democrat, said he\u2019s \u201cdefinitely\u201d backing Vice President Kamala Harris, but other construction executives sounded more divided. Marek, a \u201clifelong Republican,\u201d declined to share how he\u2019s voting but noted that \u201ca lot of Republicans aren\u2019t voting for Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taylor also wouldn\u2019t say which candidate he\u2019s supporting but praised Trump\u2019s ability to \u201cget things done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are many other issues with the economy that we are fighting daily that have nothing to do with immigration reform,\u201d he said. \u201cI am not a one-policy voter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Both presidential candidates promise to build more homes. One promises to deport hundreds of thousands of people who build them. Former President Donald Trump\u2019s pledge to \u201claunch the largest deportation operation in the history of our country\u201d would hamstring construction firms already facing labor shortages and push record home prices higher, say industry leaders, contractors and economists. \u201cIt would be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":33622,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3356,1230],"class_list":["post-33621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-deportations","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33621"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33623,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33621\/revisions\/33623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}