The recent ice attack in the Los Angeles-area Home Depot parking lot has sparked protests and headlines across the nation, but also raises doubts on the workforce markets that are important to the US economy. A study from the Hispanic Construction Council estimates the national construction workforce is shortfall of 500,000 workers. The community fears say it will delay construction projects across the country that are already behind schedule.
The parking lot at the Home Improvement Store was once full of ambitious workers looking for a day’s work. Contractors in need of temporary help wielded and scooped several workers for the day, and the symbiotic ecosystem flourished. Workers were able to get a day’s salary, and contractors were able to get cheap and temporary help without all the documents.
Since President Trump was re-elected, workers experts have warned of unpredictable outcomes for sectors that rely on migrant labor, including construction and housing. The recent immigration and customs enforcement raid in the Los Angeles area sparked protests in the Parking Lots of Home Depot, placing national poles in the day-long worker community. But beyond military deployment and politically pointed out, workers experts say that Home Depot parking sweep could have a wide range of impacts on whether or not important work will be performed in the US.
George Carrillo, CEO of Hispanic Construction Council, estimates that there are tens of thousands of “car park day workers” across the country, and that the recent ice attacks have a calm effect of rippling across the economy.
“We have members reach out to us to see what they need to do. They’re scared,” Carrillo said.
The practice of workers who gather in the parking lots of housing improvement stores to seek employment is a long-standing part of the working environment, and many of these workers come from Latin American countries, including Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
“They are making a living and trying to make tough decisions. They can’t poke their heads out and get deported or not support their families,” Carrillo said. Carrillo says that the entire workforce group is increasingly hearing reports of ice attacks targeting construction sites where they are being rounded up.
Construction projects that have already been delayed will be delayed
Worker crackdowns exacerbate the already tenuous US labor market. Carrillo said the construction project was 14% behind when Trump took office, but it has now risen to 22% as deportation and immigration enforcement thinned the construction labor market.
“We’re even more behind on the project and we’re watching nationwide even if there’s crackdown. People aren’t out of work,” Carrillo said. Day workers are more likely to be picked up by subcontractors who need help painting and reconfiguring their closets, not workers on large construction projects. However, he added, “If small subcontractors can’t get those jobs done, they’ll have a ripple effect across the construction industry.”
Jason Greer, a labor consultant and founder and CEO of Greer Consulting, says the crackdown is causing construction slowdown due to labor shortages. “Day workers are so scared to die to show up at places like Lowe’s, Home Depot and others because they don’t want to be arrested by the ice,” he said.
ICE has not commented directly on the Home Depot attack, but Ice’s statement read to Los Angeles NBC’s affiliate “U.S. immigrants, customs enforcement officers and agents are on the streets every day, prioritizing public safety by finding, arresting and eliminating criminal and immigrant offenders from our neighborhoods.” “All foreigners who violate US immigration laws may be subject to arrest or detention and have been removed from the US if the final order determines they are removable.
Home Depot tells CNBC it does not allow workers to sell services on the premises, but is not involved in the operation of the ice.
“Like many businesses, we have a long-standing invoice policy that prohibits anyone from selling goods and services on our property,” a spokesman for Home Depot said.
“It also adds that we are not notified when ice activity occurs and are not involved in the operation. We instruct the associates to report the incident immediately and not engage in the activity for safety.
Lowe’s and Menards did not respond to requests for comment.
More complex immigration issues
Rick Hermanns, CEO of Staffing Agency HireQuest, has placed 70,000 workers on C-Suite workers on a daily basis, and says the upstream impact of crackdowns on daytime workers is complex and enormous, with neither party solving the problem.
According to Hermanns, LAX enforcement encourages people to directly or indirectly hire unlicensed workers, creating a two-tier system in which some workers are paid under the table, whilst businesses such as HireQuest pay compensation and social security for the workers they need. Hermans says workers on the day under the table create a competitive disadvantage, as these mandated costs account for at least 20% of the wages paid. But Hermans said crackdowns like those already happening create complications as they reduce the already thin workforce pool, increase wages and spread throughout the economy in the form of inflation.
“The ripple effects are much deeper and broader than everyone understands,” Hermans said. “For me, our whole political establishment is uncomfortable seeing all the effects,” he added.
Higher wages are good because they draw people into the worker pool that might otherwise sit at home. “But making basic wages 20% higher is very bad for inflation,” Hermans said.
For businesses, Hermanns says whiplash between administrative approaches creates uncertainty. “I would rather be more relaxed or stricter. Uncertainty is bad. The thing we need to do both is to come together from both camps and realize that what we have is unsustainable,” he said.
Atlanta-based immigration attorney Lauren Lock says the current car park sweep at home improvement stores has done nothing to resolve the country’s complicated immigration situation. Locke said that there is no reason to think that a day when gathering in the car park of the improvement store and being heavily distorted by immigrants and disproportionately lacking approval for our work, is a good source of dangerous criminal immigration.
“In fact, they seem like a simple pick for ice to hit the daily arrest quota,” Locke said.
She points to a complex web of immigration programs that have evolved over the years, creating an unsustainable system.
“We’re in this confusion right now, with millions of workers in the United States in this gray immigrant position,” Locke said. “They were allowed, so now they’re back to treating them like criminals who need to be deported right away.”
Locke pointed out that he was given the status of DACA and now has a child who is a grandparent.
“This isn’t fixed throughout adulthood,” Locke said.
Meanwhile, contractors and subcontractors across the entire food chain under construction are finding a small labor pool heading into the summer season.
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