This construction project was on time and on budget. Then came ICE.

[babylonsister]

This construction project was on time and on budget. Then came ICE.
By Tim Reid
July 28, 20256:20 AM EDTUpdated 29 mins ago

Summary

ICE raids are disrupting the construction industry and worsening labor shortages
CEOs say raids are causing project delays and cost overruns
Some construction workers are in hiding to avoid deportation
DHS says workplace raids help combat trafficking and exploitation

MOBILE, Alabama July 28 (Reuters) - Under a broiling Alabama sky a frustrated Robby Robertson, a construction site superintendent, surveys an 84,000 square foot, mostly built recreation center close to the Gulf coast port city of Mobile.

The site is eerily quiet. Last month, the $20 million project was on track for on-time completion by November 1. Now Robertson says he is looking at a three-week delay after about half of his workers - scared by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid on a job site in Florida 230 miles (370 kilometers) away - have stayed away.

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

"The threats and the reporting of raids have caused workers to not show up at job sites, just whole crews for fear of a raid," said Jim Tobin, the CEO of the National Association of Home Builders, which has 140,000 members.

While immigration enforcement agents have stepped up their raids on other work sites in recent weeks, detaining farmworkers, restaurant staff, meat packers, and day laborers, the construction industry is especially vulnerable to disruptions in the labor supply, according to Reuters interviews and government data.

more...

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/this-construction-project-was-time-budget-then-came-ice-2025-07-28/

[dutch777]

1. ICE isn't the only thing in the Trump admin messing up construction projects. Funding approvals are lagging too.

I have a friend who is an architect on a housing project in eastern WA state. They bid a project in spring with hope to get it done in the summer construction window. Despite clear application approval prior, the final go ahead approval has not come from DC and given normal colder weather changes in the fall shut down the concrete and asphalt plants it is now almost too late to start the project this year. The inaction may cancel the project entirely as the stipulation to the funding was that it must be used this year or will be lost. So the housing authority would have to reapply, assuming there are even any funds available to apply for, next year. So the contractor that bid and won the project along with their workers are shorted as is the housing authority and its tenants. Hard to know if this is a DOGE driven issue or just a new inept administration or a back door way to claw back approved funding, but it is pretty lousy way to do business. Getting contractors to bid government projects is already a challenge in many places and this will only make it more of a bad waste of time.

[bottomofthehill]

2. Someone should arrest Robby Robbinson

If half of his workforce is undocumented. The problem is on the demand side. Employers continue to employ the undocumented (usually at a sub-standard wage) and they are now chasing their undocumented workforce with masked goons, dogs, bounty hunters whatever the hell ICE is doing and it is because of the company executives. Maybe we should send a few of them to a Salvadoran jail and see if it solves the immigration crisis.

[hatrack]

3. November 2024 General Election Results, Mobile County AL

Donald J. Trump - 57.72%
Kamala D. Harris - 42.28%

Suck it, Mobile County, AL.

Suck. It.

https://elections.mobilecountyal.gov/

[travelingthrulife]

4. Good. The only thing that will stop Trump is these useless CEOs finding their

spines and stopping the destruction of their industries.