On a brisk October morning in Washington, D.C., the hum of heavy machinery and the clatter of hammers echo beneath the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge. Rurick Palomino, a U.S. citizen originally from Peru, surveys the worksite where his crew of 30 is laboring on a $128 million federally funded refurbishment project. For Palomino, the scene is both a testament to the American dream and a daily reminder of the labor crisis gripping the U.S. construction industry.
Palomino’s story is emblematic of a sector in turmoil. According to NPR, he once employed 45 workers but has since scaled back, not for lack of contracts, but because he simply can’t find enough hands. “There’s plenty of work—a lot of mega-projects coming—but I’m afraid to take more because I don’t have the manpower,” he told NPR. His predicament is not unique. Across the country, contractors large and small are grappling with a severe labor shortage, a problem that’s been dramatically intensified by President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and stepped-up enforcement by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The numbers are stark. The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), the industry’s largest trade group, conducted a survey in the summer of 2025 and found that 92% of construction firms are struggling to fill positions. Over the past six months, 28% of surveyed firms reported being affected by immigration actions: 5% had ICE agents visit a jobsite, 10% lost workers due to actual or rumored ICE raids, and 20% saw subcontractors lose staff simply out of fear of such raids. Ken Simonson, AGC’s chief economist, explained to NPR, “Firms say it’s extremely disruptive when workers fail to show up or leave in the middle of a task. A building project is step by step. It’s fine if you get the foundation poured and the beams up to hold up the building. But if you can’t put on the roof, you’re not going to be able to finish things off.”
These disruptions are more than just logistical headaches—they’re driving up costs for both contractors and property owners. Simonson warned, “This is just the cusp of what we’ll be seeing” if enforcement actions continue to ramp up.
For workers, the anxiety is palpable. ICE checkpoints have appeared on major commuter routes like the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, targeting vehicles that look like construction pickups. Palomino recounted seeing such a checkpoint himself, saying, “All construction pickups. So, it’s happening. People are scared.” Even workers with legal status aren’t immune: Palomino described how several of his employees, all with Social Security numbers and driver’s licenses, were stopped by ICE on their way to work and held for hours. “We could not accomplish what we were supposed to do that day. And that, in turn, put us behind schedule,” he said.
Sergio Barajas, head of the National Hispanic Construction Alliance, told NPR that even the rumor of ICE activity is enough to keep crews away. “That in and of itself is resulting in crews not showing up or a reduced number of persons on a given crew showing up,” he said. The fear is so widespread that some Latino-owned firms have started removing business signs from their trucks and vans to avoid being identified as construction crews and targeted for enforcement.
The labor shortage is not a new phenomenon. As Jim Tobin, president and CEO of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), pointed out, “Even when we were building more homes than we needed in the early 2000s, we still were facing a labor shortage.” He and others blame a long-running emphasis on four-year college degrees, which has devalued the trades and left the industry dependent on immigrant labor. “Since we’ve done a terrible job of educating our domestic workforce, we’ve had to increase the pull from across our borders,” Tobin said.
Maryland-based plumbing and heating contractor Kenny Mallick has spent three decades in the industry and sees the crisis from a ground-level perspective. Mallick, who voted for Trump and supports deporting people who have committed crimes, nevertheless says the crackdown is hurting business. “We can’t do what we do in this country without these people,” he told NPR. “They’re stitched into every element of our fabric—from the people cooking in restaurants to the ones pouring concrete or laying brick.” He added bluntly, “We exploit the s*** out of these people.”
Mallick’s frustration runs so deep that he plans to step back from his business, citing the “broken labor system” and the challenges posed by current policies. He’s not alone. Many contractors, especially in the South—where construction is booming and wages are low—are lifelong Republicans who supported Trump for his promises on deregulation and taxes. But as Nik Theodore, director of the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois, Chicago, observed, “They agreed with him on deregulation and taxes, and they convinced themselves [that] Trump’s rhetoric would focus on criminals, not the day-to-day construction workforce.”
The reality has been different. ICE’s enforcement actions have swept up both undocumented and documented workers, causing widespread disruptions. In June, ICE arrested more than 100 people at a construction site in Tallahassee, Florida, and in October, four workers were arrested in St. Paul, Minnesota. In Los Angeles, a Guatemalan migrant fleeing a raid near a Home Depot was struck and killed by a vehicle while trying to escape.
The impact is felt up and down the supply chain. According to the Home Building Institute, the ongoing shortage of workers costs the home-building industry $11 billion annually. The NAHB estimates that the U.S. housing market is short by about 1.5 million units, a gap that’s only growing as labor becomes harder to find. A 2023 NAHB report found that California and New Jersey have the highest percentage of foreign-born construction workers at 41% each, with Texas and Florida close behind at 38%.
The White House, for its part, maintains that there are enough American workers to fill these jobs. Spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told NPR, “There is no shortage of American minds and hands to grow our labor force, and President Trump’s agenda to create jobs for American workers represents this Administration’s commitment to capitalizing on that untapped potential while delivering on our mandate to enforce our immigration laws.”
But contractors like Palomino and Mallick aren’t convinced. Palomino said, “Contrary to whatever the government thinks, the industry is not attracting new, native-born workers. They don’t want to come to work in construction.” Mallick echoed the sentiment: “There’s not anyone sitting on the sidelines. Unemployment is low. Where are you going to get them at? The trades aren’t sexy.”
The administration has floated solutions, including an executive order to modernize the skilled trades workforce and a new Office of Immigration Policy aimed at helping employers secure needed labor. But details remain scarce, and skepticism runs high. Mark Erlich, a fellow at Harvard Law School’s Center for Labor and a Just Economy, believes the industry could attract more U.S.-born workers if pay and conditions improved. “When conditions have become so degraded—both compensation and safety—it’s no surprise people don’t join,” he said.
For now, the industry’s future remains uncertain. Palomino, reflecting on his journey from a single suitcase to running a thriving business, still believes in the American dream but worries about its sustainability for the next generation of builders. “Maybe [the government] can create a path—even if not for citizenship—for good workers to be allowed to work without fear,” he said. “Most workers in this business just want to live and go day by day.”
With projects stalling, costs rising, and a workforce gripped by anxiety, the U.S. construction industry stands at a crossroads—caught between political imperatives and the practical realities of building America’s future.