As anger grows among South Texas construction contractors over the White House’s aggressive immigration raids, one industry official shared footage of federal agents speeding through a neighborhood, saying it shows a willingness to put lives at risk.
Mario Guerrero, executive director of the South Texas Builders Association, showed footage to news outlet Border Report of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) speeding through a subdivision in an unmarked vehicle as they sought to carry out a sting. Workers at the site are seen scattering to flee.
Guerrero said the raids aren’t just creating fear for families but potentially putting children at risk as agents barrel toward or work sites without giving prior warning. In most cases, ICE agents raiding South Texas construction projects don’t even have warrants, he added.
“We were told that there has to be some sort of warrant that needs to be presented when these federal agents show up to construction sites. And there’s no warrants being presented,” Guerrero said earlier this month during a press call hosted by the American Business Immigration Coalition.
An Associated General Contractors of America survey last fall found that 92% of construction businesses are struggling to fill positions amid the Trump administration’s stepped up ICE raids. Over the six months leading up to the poll, 28% of firms said they’d been affected by the crackdown, while 10% said they’d lost workers to actual or rumored raids.
“Firms say it’s extremely disruptive when workers fail to show up or leave in the middle of a task,” AGC Chief Economist Ken Simonson told NPR. “A building project is step by step. So it’s fine if you get the foundation poured and the beams up to hold up the building. But if you can’t put on the roof, you’re not going to be able to finish things off.”
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