\n<\/p>\n
A<\/span>s the Trump administration ramps up its crackdown on immigration, undocumented workers in the construction industry claim raids and arrests have emboldened some contractors to cut pay and increase hours.<\/p>\n Rogelio, a tile setter, works for various contractors in the the Tucson, Arizona, region. He is undocumented, and did not provide his full name.<\/p>\n When Donald Trump returned to office in January, Rogelio said his employers cut their rates by 30% to 40%. Other laborers told him they had endured similar treatment.<\/p>\n \u201cThey decreased the pay by piece because they know most of the tile setters don\u2019t have social security numbers, so they take advantage of that. We are in their hands,\u201d Rogelio told the Guardian. \u201cIt\u2019s more work, less pay. We have no choice right now.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re struggling with bills. We\u2019re struggling with food. We\u2019re struggling with everything because we don\u2019t get enough money to pay whatever we need to pay.\u201d<\/p>\n Many of the undocumented immigrants Rogelio knows are only leaving home to work, Rogelio said. \u201cWe have a lot of fear,\u201d he told the Guardian. \u201cWe look for news in the morning to see if we\u2019re able to go to work or not.\u201d<\/p>\n With approximately 2.9 million US construction workers \u2013 about 34% of the workforce \u2013 foreign-born, construction sector lobbyists have publicly urged the Trump administration to soften their hardline stance on immigration. \u201cWhile the need for safe and secure borders is paramount, mass deportation is not the answer,\u201d Buddy Hughes, chairperson of the National Association of Home Builders, said in a statement.<\/p>\n Advocates for workers rights say some operators in the sector are using Trump\u2019s crackdown to abuse undocumented workers.<\/p>\n \u201cEspecially in construction, there\u2019re a lot of subcontractors that take advantage of this situation by not paying them the fair wage or not even paying them at all,\u201d said Laura Becerra, movement politics director of the non-profit Workers Defense Project based in Texas.<\/p>\n Undocumented workers are unlikely to lodge an official complaint, she added. \u201cSince people don\u2019t want to say anything because they don\u2019t want to be put on the radar, and they\u2019re also getting retaliated against if they do say something.\u201d<\/p>\n The administration is pushing ahead with public raids on undocumented immigrant workers. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agency is arresting an increasing number of immigrants without any criminal history, according to a Guardian analysis of federal government data.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an attack,\u201d Becerra said. \u201cIt\u2019s taking a toll on families, families that need to make ends meet, that are already suffering from low wages and doing work no one wants to do.\u201d<\/p>\n In Tucson, undocumented workers are avoiding freeways, according to Rogelio. \u201cFreeways are one of the worst places to drive right now because of all the police and border patrol and they look for mostly hispanic people to stop,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are living day by day and not knowing what\u2019s going to happen tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n In some areas \u201cthere are spots where you can work with no problem,\u201d he said. \u201cBut others, there are racist people living there and they don\u2019t want us. They want our work, they want cheap labor, but they don\u2019t want us.<\/p>\n \u201cWe came here because we want to work and provide for our families. The only reason I\u2019m here, personally, I have two kids who are American citizens. I\u2019m not asking for any benefits from the government.\u201d<\/p>\n Reports from across the US suggest undocumented workers are facing unprecedented pressure.<\/p>\n Savannah Palmira, director of organizing for the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades district council 5, which covers workers in states around the Pacific north-west, said the threat of raids is making it harder for workers to organize.<\/p>\n A roofing company in Washington was raided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) earlier this year after workers filed safety complaints, Palmira claimed, with the fear of retaliation stemming from that case spreading to other job sites, and leaving workers reluctant to speak out and file complaints against abusive work practices.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat contractors are doing is taking an opportunity to not be held accountable for their bad practices,\u201d said Palmira. \u201cThe more and more people are starting to talk about workers getting taken advantage of, Ice is getting called on them. They\u2019re taking a tool away from us to be able to put bad contractors on notice.\u201d<\/p>\n In Washington, another undocumented construction worker \u2013 who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation \u2013 said many of his coworkers were \u201cthinking about going back to their countries\u201d due to the reality of life in the US.<\/p>\n \u201cThe last company I worked for took advantage of people in every situation,\u201d he said, from dissuading injured workers from getting medical attention to denying overtime and breaks.<\/p>\n \u201cThey say, you are undocumented, so they will pay you $10 an hour because you have no work permit,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd if not, they will tell Ice.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn Washington state, immigrants make up 25% of the trades workforce in construction. With a consistent labor shortage and demand for housing constantly growing, residential construction needs all the skilled workers available,\u201d a spokesperson for the Building Industry Association of Washington said in an email. \u201cWe\u2019ve provided our members with guidance on how to legally employ immigrants, including verifying the identity and US employment authorization of all employees. We also generally support improving US Immigration policy to allow responsible and law-abiding undocumented worker a pathway to achieving citizenship.\u201d<\/p>\n Arizona Builders Alliance did not respond to multiple requests for comment.<\/p>\n On a national level the construction industry has repeatedly warned of the negative impacts of immigration raids on what they claim has already been a severe labor shortage in US construction.<\/p>\n Asked about contractors allegedly using the ramp up in immigration enforcement to cut pay and increase workloads, the National Association of Home Builders issued a statement from Hughes, its chairperson, which did not directly address the claims.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the construction industry facing a deficit of more than 200,000 workers, policymakers must consider that any disruption to the labor force would raise housing costs, limit supply and worsen the nation\u2019s housing affordability crisis,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cTo address this pressing national issue, NAHB is urging Congress to support meaningful investments in our nation\u2019s education system to encourage students to pursue careers in the skilled trades.<\/p>\n \u201cPolicymakers should also support sensible immigration policies that preserve and expand existing temporary work visa programs while also creating new market-based visa programs that will accurately match demand with available labor.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As the Trump administration ramps up its crackdown on immigration, undocumented workers in the construction industry claim raids and arrests have emboldened some contractors to cut pay and increase hours. Rogelio, a tile setter, works for various contractors in the the Tucson, Arizona, region. He is undocumented, and did not provide his full name. When<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[231,3476,584,150,1040,3477,81,3475,3474,514],"class_list":{"0":"post-10482","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-builders","9":"tag-exploitation","10":"tag-face","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-pay","13":"tag-raids","14":"tag-trump","15":"tag-unchecked","16":"tag-undocumented","17":"tag-work"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}