ICE Raids Scare Off Legal Migrants from Construction Projects
By Reuters | 28 Jul, 2025

The construction industry is suffering from ICE raids that scare off not only the 1.4 million undocumented migrants working in construction but also many working legally.

This mostly built 84,000 square foot recreation center close to Mobile, Alabama, had been on track for an on-time completion by November 1st.

But the construction site's superintendent says he is now looking at a three-week delay, after about half of his workers stayed home for days out of fear of being arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“This particular job here is a huge job for the community. Well, the community is gonna miss out if we can't get it finished."

Superintendent Robby Robertson, who chose to conceal his face, told Reuters that it was a recent ICE raid on a job site in Florida more than 200 miles away that spooked his staff.

“I know that we have lost a lot of our workers because of their hearing about these raids. We have got some of them back, but we're still, we're now about half capacity, which basically hurts our work production.”

Immigration raids on building sites - part of an expanding crackdown by President Donald Trump on work sites across the country -  are causing major disruptions to the construction industry, according to Reuters interviews.

Robertson said his company faces a $4,000 penalty for every day it runs past its November 1st deadline, already a potential cost of $84,000.

"...those raids happen a good bit away from here. There's a lot of closer jobs than this one. So I know they're all being affected as well."

About 1.4 million of the roughly 11 million people in the U.S. illegally work in construction, more than any other industry. That's according to the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.

And construction industry leaders say those workers are hard to replace with native-born Americans because most don’t have the skills.

ROBBY: "...they are willing to do it, the Hispanic descent. They basically are stepping up and do some of the hard work. But I am a Trump supporter, like I said, and I do think there is a way to go about doing this, but I just don't think the raids is the answer.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said ICE raids have helped combat dangerous activities such as labor trafficking and exploitation.

Robertson said his company and its subcontractors already verify that workers are in the country legally through the government's E-Verify program, a widely used online system which checks employment eligibility.

Meanwhile, the deportation push is beginning to affect public opinion. Trump's approval rating on immigration fell to 41% in a Reuters/Ipsos poll this month, the lowest since his return to the White House.