The growing backlash emerging among homebuilders in key states like Texas and Florida was the subject of Guardian and Wall Street Journal features this week, as aggressive immigration enforcement leaves jobsites understaffed, delays homebuilding, and drives up housing costs for American families.
The Guardian article included ABIC Action and several leaders from our network:
Nearly two-thirds of builders said immigration enforcement is affecting their labor force, up from 13% a year ago, according to the WSJ article. And despite wages being driven up to even $40 or $45/hr, “There’s no one lining up to do a lot of these jobs,”Josh Putnal, the owner of a subcontractor in Jacksonville, told WSJ.
“We have national builders who are missing projections, losing hundreds of thousands of dollars because they have slabs sitting on the ground and no one to frame,” Scott Brannock, president of Jacksonville-based Tidewater Homes and the Northeast Florida Builders Association told WSJ.
The South Texas Builders Association, alongside ABIC Action, has been urging the Trump administration to reconsider its approach, and staged a “Rally in the Valley” in July to draw attention to the urgent issue.
“It concluded with a warning for Trump and the Republicans: if you carry on hunting our people, you will feel our wrath,” reported the Guardian.
Farm country also has beef with Trump as the midterms approach reports the New York Times, Kansas City NPR and the Washington Post.
A letter from ABIC’s Ag Council leaders and more than 40 farmers and agricultural industry groups who are ABIC members was featured in today’s Washington Post, warning Trump and Congressional leaders that administration’s crackdown on immigration is affecting the nation’s food supply, hurting farmers and risking higher grocery prices.
“Targeting immigrant workers who have not committed crimes and blocking workforce solutions for agriculture devastates agricultural producers, drives up food costs for all Americans and makes our nation more dependent on other countries,” the letter states.
Signatories include the Milk Producers Council, the Texas International Produce Association, the Kansas Livestock Association and the Indiana Dairy Producers.
Recent immigration raids, and rising fuel, fertilizer and equipment costs, are fueling frustration among farmers and ranchers who have previously supported President Trump reported NYT. Matt Teagarden, CEO of the Kansas Livestock Association and Chair of the ABIC Ag Council, told NYT immigration raids led to canceled cattle-processing appointments, disrupting operations, drawing rare pushback from ranchers across Kansas, Texas, and Oklahoma.
Some rural voters are considering sitting out the midterms or reconsidering their political affiliations.
Immigration enforcement and its impact on businesses is also emerging as a key issue in a Colorado battleground race, reported Bloomberg. In Colorado’s highly competitive 8th Congressional District race, Latinos represent about 30% of voters. Local businesses report losing customers and workers amid enforcement fears. One of those business owners, Michelle Santillanes, is an ABIC member who owns a remodeling company and used to own a restaurant. She said it’s gotten to the point where “everyone knows someone who has been detained.”
As the midterms draw near, both parties are competing for increasingly unaffiliated Latino voters.
Be a part of pushing for work permits and legal paths for long-term immigrants before, and after, the elections:
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TPS: Ukraine and Sudan TPS Holders Will Keep Protections, For Now, Signaling Softer Approach Pre-Midterms
The Trump administration said Sunday that people from Ukraine and Sudan will keep their temporary protected status (TPS) for now, allowing them to stay and work in the U.S. It’s a softer approach to the humanitarian protections ahead of the midterms, reports the Washington Post.
TPS was set to expire for about 100,000 Ukrainians and about 1,800 Sudanese on Monday. DHS said that an announcement on the future of both programs would be “made at the appropriate time” and that people covered by them would be protected until then, a similar situation to the 200,000 Salvadorans with TPS.
Salvadorans were set to lose protections in September, but have been allowed to keep TPS status, for now. Advocacy by employers played a key role in that decision, reported Washington post, and ABIC and TPS Alliance considered the outcomes a hard fought victory resulting from strategic coalition building.
“Canceling the program outright could jeopardize Trump’s relationship with powerful business groups that have employed Salvadoran TPS holders for decades,” the Washington Post reported.
A bipartisan group of senators, including U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), has also urged the administration to extend Ukrainian TPS.
“We encourage the administration and Congress to consider longer term relief for women, men and children trying to carve out stability while their countries of origin remain in upheaval,” Myal Greene, president and CEO of World Relief told the AP after the decision.
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Enforcement: Nearly 1 Million Deportations, but Few Have Criminal Convictions
A new Migration Policy Institute analysis estimates the Trump administration deported or arranged the departure of 980,000 people through July 2026, including border turnbacks and voluntary departures.
Only 20% had criminal convictions, rising to 28% among those who had lived in the U.S. for at least two years; even among those with convictions, many offenses were immigration or traffic-related rather than violent crimes.
“These data here do not suggest the administration is deporting the worst of the worst,” said former DHS official Marc Rosenblum.
Only 33% of those deported in July were new arrivals who had been in the U.S. for less than 2 years:
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Perspectives
National Catholic Reporter Editorial Board: Immigration, war, democracy should be front of mind for Catholic voters
NCR urges Catholic voters to focus on three defining issues: immigration enforcement, the war in Iran and the protection of democracy.
The editorial condemns the Trump administration’s mass deportation policies, particularly the targeting of law-abiding immigrants, the denial of due process and the termination of Temporary Protected Status for people whose home countries remain dangerous: “all these constitute a tale of shame our nation will long regret…The moral stain will be indelible.,” they wrote.
“We commend the U.S. bishops for their outspoken advocacy for migrants. We commend the thousands of volunteers who accompany migrants to court hearings…It is time now to elect a Congress that will rein in Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” they wrote, calling for Congress to take on comprehensive immigration reform.
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