As former President Donald Trump ramps up rhetoric and enforcement around mass deportations, one industry central to the U.S. economy—and heavily dependent on immigrant labor—is bracing for impact: construction.

While Trump has sent mixed signals about targeting farms and hotels, the construction industry has remained in ICE’s crosshairs, even as it employs the largest share of immigrant workers without college degrees—2.2 million as of May 2025, according to a Stateline analysis of federal labor data.

“That’s more than the next three industries combined,” the report notes, highlighting restaurants (1.1 million), janitorial services (526,000), and landscaping (454,000) as distant runners-up.

“Six or eight weeks ago, I would have said we weren’t affected at all. Now we are,” said Sergio Barajas, executive director of the National Hispanic Construction Alliance. “There’s a substantial reduction in the number of workers who are showing up, so crews are 30%, 40% smaller than they used to be.”

In cities across Florida, Texas, California, and Pennsylvania, ICE has launched new workplace raids that have triggered fear throughout construction job sites. Barajas noted that roofers were likely among the first targeted due to the visibility of their work. “Roofers are right out there where you can see them,” he said, adding that workers—legal and undocumented—are avoiding sites altogether out of fear.

A June 2025 Home Builders Institute report warned that ongoing labor shortages are already causing delays and economic losses in home construction, which has reached historically high levels to meet demand.

The construction workforce has become increasingly reliant on immigrant labor. Noncitizen workers now make up 22% of the construction workforce, up from 19% in 2015, accounting for over a third of the 1.5 million new jobs added during that period. Nearly half are in Southern states such as Florida, North Carolina, and Texas, and another quarter are in the West, including Arizona and California.

Clint O’Neal, a civil engineering lecturer at the University of Michigan, pointed out that construction costs vary widely across states depending on labor practices. “The large difference [in cost] suggests workers and their employers in some regions are not paying for income taxes, overtime, Social Security or unemployment insurance,” O’Neal said. “Since undocumented workers have limited employment options they may be more willing than others to accept these conditions.”

In many cases, immigrant laborers are funneled through subcontracting chains, which makes wage theft and unsafe work conditions harder to track. “It becomes a blame game,” said Enrique Lopezlira, director of the Low-Wage Work Program at UC Berkeley’s Labor Center. “The developers can say, ‘I hired this contractor and I thought he was above board,’ and the contractors can say, ‘I rely on subcontractors.’ It becomes a race to the bottom.”

Despite political rhetoric blaming immigrants for job displacement, noncitizen laborers made up just 7% of the national workforce as of May 2025, a number that’s remained relatively stable since 2015.

The construction industry’s reliance on immigrant labor isn’t a matter of political preference—it’s economic reality. Labor shortages, especially in residential construction, are compounding the nation's housing crisis. Deporting workers at scale without expanding legal pathways or addressing workforce pipelines could deepen housing unaffordability and stall infrastructure goals.

Industry leaders and researchers are warning that intensified immigration enforcement—without complementary labor reforms—will backfire. Disruptions to construction projects could ripple into local economies, housing markets, and infrastructure timelines nationwide.

As 2026 approaches and political campaigns heat up, the construction industry may find itself on the front lines—not only of enforcement, but of a larger national debate on immigration, labor, and economic growth.

Originally reported by Tim Henderson in North Dakota Monitor.