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WESLACO, Texas—At Monte Cielo, a new housing development in this growing region of South Texas, half-built homes are sitting empty. The quiet scene comes after federal immigration agents have hit the development repeatedly, carrying out at least half a dozen raids there in recent months, builders said. The most recent was a few weeks ago.
The result? Homes are months behind schedule, and contractors face an uphill battle to recruit more workers to finish them. The situation is becoming familiar across the Rio Grande Valley, where trade groups are raising alarms about aggressive immigration enforcement wreaking economic havoc. Construction delays threaten higher prices for buyers and lower margins for builders. Materials suppliers are laying off employees.
“They are basically taking everyone in there working, whether they have proper documentation or not,” said Mario Guerrero, chief executive of the South Texas Builders Association. Guerrero added that he voted for President Trump, along with most of the region, and supports deportations of criminals, but “when you are terrorizing jobsites, people are afraid to go to work.”
South Texas is a heightened example of what contractors are facing across the country in areas where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity has intensified. Home builders in Minnesota relayed similar experiences of raids picking up whole work crews, even those with legal documentation. Nationally, a third of commercial contractors reported being affected by immigration-enforcement actions in the past six months, according to a January report by trade group Associated General Contractors of America.
The situation here highlights how two of Trump’s priorities—curbing illegal immigration and strengthening the economy—can come into conflict with one another. Hidalgo County, which comprises some 22 cities including Weslaco, McAllen and Mission, is growing at twice the rate of the U.S. as a whole, according to census data, from 870,000 people in 2020 to 915,000 people in 2025. McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos, a Republican, said he is concerned about the raids raising home prices and putting a damper on new business investment.
In 2024, immigrants—both with and without legal status—accounted for more than half of construction-trade workers in Texas, California, New Jersey and the District of Columbia, according to a senior research analyst at the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. Builders said that is much higher in the Rio Grande Valley. Moreover, the raids occurring now are netting not only immigrants in the country illegally, but also those with legal authorization, builders said.
Because of that, people are afraid to work whether they have legal authorization or not, a reality that has hit the industry and broader regional economy hard. Paul Rodriguez, CEO of Valley Land Title, estimated that residential construction activity fell 30% in recent months in Hidalgo County.
A large regional concrete supplier saw concrete use fall 60% between late May and November as home builders lost workers and were unable to move forward with construction. The company had to lay off 60 of its 150 workers. The company filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in December, citing the drop in demand coinciding with immigration raids.
At a local tile supplier, the ICE crackdown has resulted in $5.3 million in lost sales. The company has laid off two drivers and four sales representatives and reduced hours for most of the remaining 39 employees, the first layoffs in the company’s history. Pallets that should have been picked up within 24 hours have now been sitting in his parking lot for months. The company took out a $1.3 million credit line to pay for tile that contractors ordered but never picked up because they couldn’t find workers. Two crews of installers, who previously spent their time upgrading the company’s four showrooms, now install tiles for customers who can’t find workers.
Johnny Vasquez, executive officer of the Rio Grande Valley Builders Association, observing flaws in newly lain sidewalk, said that the immigration raids are leading to poor quality of work because workers with decades of experience are arrested and contractors scramble for inexperienced replacements. Contractors face an uphill battle to recruit more workers to finish houses: looking at a framed house with materials stacked on the roof and no workers in sight, Vasquez ticked off the people affected, from lenders and smaller contractors to home buyers.
“If nobody comes back to finish out this house, a lot of people are going to lose out,” he said.
© 2015 Mutual Fund Observer. All rights reserved.
© 2015 Mutual Fund Observer. All rights reserved. Powered by Vanilla
Comments
Agriculture and manufacturing are facing the same.
A 60% drop in concrete use tells the whole story.
This will not result in more affordable housing. Or food. Or manufactured items.
Many builders and contractors up here always had a 'who cares' attitude. There'll be more applicants and I'll be able to pay them less than I already do, many with cash under the table to avoid paying SS. Maybe the pigeons are coming home to roost in flocks, just as OJ noted.
i doubt anything can dent trump worship outside the austin area.
given the sheer number of immigrants, why isnt trump sending ICE and NationalGuard from other states?
we all know the reason, which is that trump is chickenshi+ of affecting all the wealthier MAGA, which is what happens if you enforce immigration in the oil patch.
Do we trust this admin to refrain from interfering? (Rhetorical question).
Not to change the subject but in the last few days and especially after the murders of Good and Pretti I've begun to wonder how many other possible victims have these goons picked off in remote areas or even along the border that nobody knows about. When they arrest folks they seem to often just disappear to who knows where and It's not a stretch for me to think that many have disappeared permanently into holes in the ground. Not hard to imagine at all.
Some of these guys are just MAGA thugs with bad intentions. So we would not be shocked if true.