The wind was tinged with smoke from the fires that ravaged the Pacific Palisades as dozens of workers were finishing the brick facade of a sprawling home in the bustling Brentwood Park neighborhood.
The meeting was conducted in Spanish, which is not surprising given that Spanish has been the lingua franca at most construction sites in Southern California for decades.
But that fact could be at the heart of a Leviathan-like conflict of interest. The need to rebuild thousands of burned-out homes on a scale the city has never seen before, and the president-elect’s promise to deport a significant portion of the workforce. Who will be needed to accomplish this huge undertaking?
“Everyone is scared,” said Melvin Merino, 36, a painter at the home. Workers are “reluctant to talk about their immigration status for fear that it will be known to immigration officials.”
Even in cities that are pro-immigration, his concerns could make him and others wary of taking jobs in high-profile areas such as fire zones.
President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to “close” the border to immigrants, carrying out the largest mass deportation program of illegal immigrants in U.S. history. The Trump administration’s border czar, Tom Homan, has promised to reinstate on-the-ground enforcement.
Immigrant rights groups are bracing for widespread roundups and deportations and are holding legal workshops across the state to help residents who may be stopped by federal authorities.
The threat has rattled the construction industry, which is already facing a labor shortage. Wildfires that destroyed an estimated 12,000 structures in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena will further increase demand. Immigration policies that deport undocumented workers or force them underground could hinder recovery as homeowners rely on contractors to slow rebuilding.
“It’s a perfect storm,” said Jenny Murray, president of the National Immigration Forum, a group that advocates for bipartisan immigration policy.
An estimated 41% of California’s construction workers are immigrants, according to the National Association of Americans. of home builders. But experts say the numbers are much higher in residential construction, much of which is not unionized and less tightly regulated than large capital projects. Wages are low and many do not have legal status to remain in the United States.
Trump administration officials have said the administration will prioritize criminals and those who pose a threat to public safety, but the plan has not yet taken shape. Many employers fear that the administration’s broader reach could devastate industries that rely heavily on immigrant labor, including hospitality, manufacturing, construction, and agriculture. are.
Yesenia Acosta seeks advice from a lawyer during a public meeting where a consortium of lawyers, attorneys, organizations and community experts provides information about immigrants’ constitutional rights in the Robert F. Kennedy High School auditorium in Delano, California. I’m leaning forward.
(Thomas Obare/For the Times)
This month, immigration enforcement actions by Customs and Border Protection in Bakersfield sparked fear among farmworkers after dozens of people were detained in a multi-day operation. Accounts of Border Patrol stopping people have gone viral on social media.
Producers report fewer workers reporting to work, and advocacy groups report a surge in frightened families attending legal training sessions on how to protect themselves from deportation. confirmed.
In Southern California, a similar situation could harm not only recovery efforts but also preparations for the 2028 Olympics.
“There is a total shortage of roofers, drywallers and other skilled trades in this country,” says Nick Theodore, a professor of disaster recovery at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s School of Urban Planning and Policy. “Then, given that the incoming Trump administration’s campaign promises include immigration enforcement and deportation, we are facing an extremely serious situation.”
There are approximately 276,000 unfilled jobs in the U.S. construction industry. To deal with the tight labor market, the National Association of Home Builders is advocating a guest worker program.
Although numbers vary, some estimates put the percentage of unauthorized workers on U.S. construction sites at between 13% and 23%. Last year, California Lutheran University’s Center for Economic and Social Affairs analyzed 2019 data and found that in California, that number was 28.7%, and those workers added $23 billion in value to the industry that year. It turns out.
“There is definitely a labor shortage on the horizon,” said Frank Hawk, executive director and treasurer of the Western States Regional Council of Carpenters, which represents 90,000 union members in 12 Western states. He said even before the bushfires, there were concerns about the region’s ability to supply skilled workers for the Olympics.
He also said workers without legal status would be concerned about traveling far because they could be vulnerable to attacks from immigration officials.
Some go underground or leave the country entirely. Builders fear this will further constrain the market and pressure costs.
A study by Cal Lutheran found that undocumented workers in California earned a median hourly wage of $13 in all fields, half the $26 an hour earned by U.S.-born workers. Authorized immigrants earned $19 an hour.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum outlined plans to step up aid to millions of citizens who could face deportation and suggested this week that Los Angeles should tap into Mexican migrant workers did.
“Once the reconstruction process begins, of course we will need a lot of labor. There are no better construction workers than Mexicans,” she said at a press conference, rejecting the right-wing portrayal of immigrants as criminals.
Drone images show the aftermath of the Palisades Fire over Pacific Coast Highway between Rambla Pacifico and Carbon Canyon Road in Malibu on January 15.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
Southern California’s wildfires, one of the nation’s worst disasters, have been compared to Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast, and brought in an influx of Latino immigrant labor to rebuild the region. In Paradise, Calif., where a fire ripped through the wooded Northern California town six years ago and killed 85 people, about 5,000 workers, many of them Latino immigrants, are still building walls every day to rebuild. , are gathering to lay the foundations and install the plumbing.
Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of the National Network of Day Labor Organizations, said many migrants will flock to the affected areas in search of jobs.
After Katrina, “employers were stopping by the day labor corner every five minutes, and they were actually getting paid well,” he said.
“But that’s where the inequity comes from,” he says. Undocumented immigrants are particularly vulnerable to unsafe conditions and other abuses. After Katrina, many workers were unhappy that they were not being paid what they had earned.
Mr. Merino, the painter, worries that contractors may not hire undocumented immigrants to avoid contact with federal authorities. Others believe that those with established contracts will likely remain employed, while new immigrants may have a harder time getting jobs.
If mass deportations were to occur, research shows that the effects could ripple throughout the construction industry, leading to net job losses for U.S.-born construction workers.
“If you don’t have someone to frame your house or install drywall, you can have American electricians and plumbers come and do the work,” said Dine Chan, an assistant professor of real estate and urban economics at the University of Wisconsin. I can’t ask for it,” he says. -Madison.
Chan co-authored a recent study examining the U.S. immigration enforcement program that began in 2008 and has resulted in the deportation of more than 300,000 people. The study found a significant and sustained decline in the construction workforce and housing construction in the county after the deportation occurred. Housing prices also rose because the impact of the reduction in housing supply was greater than the impact of reduced demand from deported immigrants.
Chan said the impact of widespread deportations would likely be greater in Los Angeles because of the large number of undocumented construction workers there.
“If anything, I think it will be a much bigger distortion to the labor supply in the construction sector in the Los Angeles area,” he said.
In Malibu, Honduran immigrant Alberto Garcia, 38, was volunteering at the Malibu Regional Labor Exchange on Friday.
“We are very concerned about deportation,” he said. Garcia hopes to secure a construction job in Malibu, but worries that any problems with the asylum case could hurt him.
“I was really trying to do everything by the book,” he said in a panic. “All we can do is put our trust in God.”
Another volunteer, Alejandro Pérez, 45, who immigrated from Mexico, has applied for asylum but is unsure of his status. He and other employees say they have no choice but to leave their homes every morning and look for work.
“I need food, bills, rent, so I need to find a job,” he says. He specializes in roofing, drywall installation, and painting, but he worries that contractors won’t hire him because of his status.
Others are likely to remain at home, said Oscar Malodrago, director of the Malibu Regional Labor Exchange.
Hector Reyes owns a construction business that serves clients on the West Side, including Pacific Palisades, Bel Air and Westwood. He is typical of many immigrants who work in the trade.
Like many in the industry, Reyes acquired skills on the job, eventually learning English, getting a green card and getting her license. He built a decades-long career in the industry that allowed him to raise a family, three children, and live a middle-class life.
Reyes’ crew is small, including his sons, but the threat feels familiar, reminiscent of the 1980s, when raids on migrants at work sites were common. “People were hiding in boxes and attics.”
“I know people who don’t live here legally, but they’re very polite people and they work hard,” he said.
Deported or not, Theodore said the city depends on them.
“I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that Los Angeles will be rebuilt by immigrant workers,” he said.
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