Government’s anti-immigration crackdown hurts construction, housing

Construction contractors and homebuilders are warning that aggressive federal immigration enforcement is decimating their workforce and businesses, according to Bulwark writer Adrian Carrasquillio.

And it doesn’t matter whether or not the targeted, detained or even deported construction workers are in the United States legally or not.

"It’s not just construction trucks being targeted. It’s workers on job sites,” Carrasquillio says. “ICE agents have stormed onto properties, dragging roofers off roofs, and snatching workers building homes, according to Mario Guerrero, executive director of the South Texas Builders Association and others in the construction industry.”

The Trump administration and officials like Stephen Miller have pushed a mass-deportation agenda, some even claiming that removing undocumented immigrants from communities will free the supply of housing and make homes more affordable by easing competition for low-cost rentals and entry-level homes.

However, research at the University of Utah found that the immigration crackdown has not measurably made housing more affordable, as a reduction in housing demand from fewer residents is offset by a shrinking construction labor force. The net result is construction delays and higher labor costs to recruit and retain workers, a downturn in new home builds, and that cancels out price drops from lower demand, the Urban Institute says.

Further, foreign-born workers are a big part of the labor force. Housing economists and trade groups such as the National Association of Home Builders report that immigrants make up more than 25% of U.S. construction workers, and in some building trades such roofing and drywall, the percentage is even higher.

In Illinois specifically, 1.9 million immigrants live here, making up about 15% of the state’s population, and 24% of construction workers are foreign-born, according to a September report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Other sectors have comparable numbers: 25% of manufacturing and 21% of transportation and utilities are immigrants, EPI says, adding that they “contribute 17.2% of the state’s economic output.”

The crackdown on immigrants leads to a scarcity of workers and project delays as well as hurting the overall economy.

“Since early 2025, immigration enforcement surges have been linked to an estimated 668,000 job losses across affected U.S. cities, including roughly 33,000 in Illinois,” says EPI’s report, “What you need to know about immigrant workers,” a state-by-state breakdown of the data produced by EPI’s research staff, led by Daniel Costa, the Director of Immigration Law and Policy Research.

“If the Trump administration achieves its deportation targets, Illinois would lose jobs,” EPI continues, “– 56,000 lost construction jobs (18% of the state’s construction jobs), 21,000 of which are held by U.S.-born citizens.”

Plus, the financial consequences “trickle down” to local levels.

“Total immigrant household income in Illinois is $88.5 billion, much of which is funneled directly back into the Illinois economy through consumer spending,” EPI adds.

“The mass deportation agenda has dire consequences,” the study says. “It will tank economic growth, gut state revenues, lead to massive job losses, disrupt key industries, spike inflation, separate families, create a culture of fear in our workplaces and communities, and rob city and state treasuries of $1.6 billion in tax payments.”