Construction industry leaders, primarily based in Texas, complain that President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance will block the hiring and continued employment of hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens in industry jobs. It's leaking.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance vowed to carry out the largest deportation program in U.S. history, led by Thomas Homan, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), whom Mr. Trump dubbed the “border czar.”
“We're going to go to work. President Trump has a mandate from the American people,” Homan said recently. “We have to protect this country. We have to save American lives.”
in interview Construction mogul Stan Marek and economic consultant Ray Perryman complained on National Public Radio (NPR) that President Trump's mass deportation plan would “destroy” the construction industry, adding, “The highways will be completed. “No, and the school will not be completed.” ”
According to 2022 estimates, the construction industry in Texas employs more than 500,000 foreign-born workers, six in 10 of whom are undocumented immigrants with no legal basis for employment in the United States. .
Perryman argues that not hiring illegal aliens in the construction industry is unsustainable.
“It's not realistic to round up and deport everyone. … And we don't have the economic structure to sustain that,” Perryman told NPR. “Right now, there are more illegal aliens working in Texas than there are unemployed people in Texas.”
Instead, Malek said the Trump-Vance administration should issue amnesty to between 11 million and 22 million illegal aliens living in the United States. Mr. Trump, Mr. Vance and Mr. Homan have all made clear that their administration will not consider such an amnesty plan.
Throughout President Trump's first term, aggressive enforcement of federal immigration laws contributed to a tightening of the labor market, particularly in blue-collar industries.
In return, wages for construction workers have skyrocketed and women have also had more jobs in the construction industry, as employers have had to fight for their employees to avoid a flooded labor market tilted in favor of employers. was held.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Please email jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
