Home » L.A. fires: Will Trump immigration crackdown slow rebuilding? – Jobsmaa.com

L.A. fires: Will Trump immigration crackdown slow rebuilding? – Jobsmaa.com

0 comments

As dozens of workers finished the brick facade of a sprawling house in the tony Brentwood Park neighborhood, smoke from the blaze billowed through Pacific Palisades.

The speech was in Spanish, a fact not to be missed since it has been the lingua franca on most construction sites in Southern California for decades.

But that fact may be at the heart of the Leviathan conflict: the need to rebuild thousands of homes was burned On a scale the city has never seen before, and promises by the incoming president to deport a good percentage of the workforce needed to carry out that massive undertaking.

“Everybody's scared,” said Melvin Merino, 36, a house painter. Workers are “reluctant to talk about their immigration status for fear it might be shared with immigration officials.”

Even in a city In support of the diasporaHis fear may make him and others wary of working in high-profile areas such as the fire zone.

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to implement the largest mass deportation program of unauthorized immigrants in U.S. history and to “seal” the borders from immigrants. Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, has promised to bring back workplace enforcement.

Immigrant rights groups are preparing for widespread roundups and evictions, holding legal workshops across the state to help residents who may be stopped by federal authorities.

There is a threat noise In the construction industry, there is already a labor shortage. Estimated forest fire 12,000 structures Demand will intensify in Pacific Palisades and Altadena. Immigration policies that deport undocumented workers or force them underground can hamper recovery as homeowners turn to contractors to slow the process of rebuilding.

“It's really a perfect storm,” said Jenny Murray, president of the National Immigration Forum, a group that advocates for bipartisan immigration policies.

A rated 41% are construction workers Settlers in California, National Assn. of house builders. But experts say the figure is much higher in residential construction — much of which is unincorporated and not as heavily regulated as large capital projects. Wages are low and many do not have the legal right to be in the United States.

Trump officials have said the administration will prioritize criminals and those who pose a threat to public safety, but their plans have yet to take clear shape. Many employers fear the administration will cast a wide net that could wipe out industries such as hospitality, manufacturing, construction and agriculture, all of which rely heavily on migrant workers.

People ask a lawyer for advice about constitutional rights for immigrants.

Robert F. in Delano, Calif. Yesenia Acosta receives the advice of an attorney during a public meeting to provide information about constitutional rights for immigrants by a consortium of legal advisers, lawyers, organizations and community experts in the Kennedy High School auditorium.

(Thomas Ovalle/For The Times)

This month, immigration enforcement by Customs and Border Protection in Bakersfield sparked concern among farmworkers after dozens of people were detained in a multi-day operation. Accounts of border guards detaining people circulated on social media.

Workers reported a drop in workers showing up for work, and advocate groups saw terrified families show up to legal workshops on how to protect themselves against deportation.

In Southern California, a similar situation could affect not only rebuilding efforts but also preparations for the 2028 Olympics.

“This country doesn't have enough roofers and drywall and all the skilled trades,” said Nick Theodore, a University of Illinois at Chicago professor who studies disaster recovery in the Department of Urban Planning and Policy. “You put immigration enforcement and deportation in the context of the next Trump administration's campaign promises, and we're facing a very serious situation.”

About 276,000 jobs remain unfilled in the U.S. construction industry. To address the tight labor market, the National Assist. Homebuilders advocated for a guest labor scheme.

Figures vary, but some estimates put the percentage of unauthorized workers in construction in the U.S. somewhere in between 13% And 23%. Last year, California Lutheran University Center for Economic and Social Issues Analyzing data from 2019, the number was 28.7% in California, and those workers added $23 billion in value to the industry that year.

said Frank Hogg, executive secretary-treasurer of the Western States Regional Council of Carpenters, which represents 90,000 union members in 12 western states. Even before the wildfires, there were concerns about the region's ability to provide skilled workers for the Olympics, he said.

He said workers without legal status are concerned about long-distance travel, which could make them vulnerable to immigration officials.

Others may go underground or leave the country altogether. Builders worry that this will further restrict the market and put pressure on costs.

A Cal Lutheran study found that the median hourly wage for undocumented workers in California across all sectors was $13 — half the $26 made by U.S.-born workers. Authorized immigrants earned $19 an hour.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum outlined the plans Increase aid to millions of citizens He suggested this week that those who could face deportation should use immigrant Mexican workers in Los Angeles.

“When the reconstruction process begins, it will require a lot of labor, and there are no better construction workers than the Mexicans.” she said During a news conference, he pushed back against the right-wing's portrayal of immigrants as criminals.

A drone image of the aftermath of the Palisades fire in Malibu

Drone footage shows the Palisades fire above Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu between Rambla Pacifico Street and Carbon Canyon Road on January 15.

(Brian van der Broek/Los Angeles Times)

The Southern California fires, one of the nation's worst disasters, have been compared to Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast, where workers Latino immigrants flocked The region must be rebuilt. In Paradise, Calif., six years after a fire swept through the heavily wooded Northern California town and killed 85 people, the rebuilding process still draws about 5,000 workers daily — many Latino immigrants — to erect walls, lay foundations and lay pipe.

Many migrants travel to disaster zones in hopes of finding work, said Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of the National Day Labor Organization Network.

After Katrina, he said, “Employers are putting a day laborer on the corner every five minutes, and they're actually paying well.”

“But where is it Injustices will comeHe said. Unauthorized immigrants are particularly vulnerable to unsafe conditions and other abuses. Many post-Katrina workers complained that they were not getting the wages they had earned.

Painter Merino fears that contractors will not hire unauthorized immigrants to avoid dealing with federal authorities. Others feel that contract workers will continue to be employed, while new immigrants may have trouble finding work.

Research shows that if mass deportations are held, the decline will ripple through the entire construction industry, leading to net job losses among U.S.-born construction workers.

“If the people who design the house, the drywall installers, the American electricians and plumbers can't come in and do their jobs,” says Dain Zhang, an assistant professor of real estate and urban economics at the University of Wisconsin. – Madison.

Co-authored by Zhang A recent study A review of the U.S. immigration enforcement program that began in 2008 found more than 300,000 people deported. The study found that after deportation, there was a large and continuous reduction in the construction workforce and residential housing construction in the counties. Housing prices also rose as the effects of reduced housing supply dominated over lower demand from evicted immigrants.

Widespread deportations could have major consequences because of the large number of construction workers living illegally in Los Angeles, Zhang said.

“If anything, I think it's going to be a huge distortion to the labor supply in the construction industry in the L.A. area,” he said.

In Malibu, Alberto Garcia, 38, an immigrant from Honduras, was volunteering. Friday In Malibu Community Labor Exchange.

“We are very concerned about deportations,” he said. Garcia hopes to get a construction job in Malibu, but fears any hiccups in his asylum case could hurt him.

“I really try to do everything by the book,” he said. “All we can do is trust in God.”

Another volunteer, Alejandro Perez, 45, a migrant from Mexico, has applied for asylum but is unsure of his status. He and other workers say they have no choice but to leave their homes every morning to look for work.

“The need for food, bills and rent money forces you to look for work,” he said. He specializes in roofing, drywall installation and painting, but worries that contractors won't hire him because of his condition.

Others are likely to stay home, said Oscar Malotrago, director of the Malibu Community Worker Exchange.

Hector Reyes owns a construction business serving clients on the Westside including Pacific Palisades, Bel-Air and Westwood. He is typical of many immigrants who work in trades.

Reyes, like many in the business, picked up skills on the job, eventually learning English, getting a green card and getting a license. He built a decades-long career in the trade that allowed him to raise a family, three children, and a middle-class life.

Reyes has a small entourage, including her sons, but the threats feel familiar, reminiscent of when workplace immigration raids were common in the 1980s. “People were hiding in boxes, in rooms.”

“I know people who don't live here legally, but they're very decent people who do their jobs,” he said.

Deportation or not, Theodore said, the city would depend on them.

“It's no exaggeration to say that Los Angeles will be remade by immigrant workers,” he said.

You may also like

About Us

We’re a media company. We promise to tell you what’s new in the parts of modern life that matter. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo. Sed consequat, leo eget bibendum sodales, augue velit.

@2024 – All Right Reserved.