Mario Guerrero voted for Donald Trump three times.
Now he’s watching federal agents show up at his South Texas construction sites and haul away his workers.
“Deporting the criminals is a great policy,” Guerrero told The New York Times, in a report by Jeremy Raff, Ivan Narez Hurtado, and Ben Laffin.
What he didn’t expect was agents arriving without warrants and removing employees who had proper documentation.
ICE sweeps have hit construction sites across the Rio Grande Valley repeatedly in recent months, with one contractor, Marco Santivanes, saying his company has been raided between 10 and 15 times across different subdivisions.
The construction sector in the region depends heavily on immigrant labor, including workers who are undocumented.
Work has stalled across the Valley as a result.
Foundations sit poured and ready, Guerrero said, with no crews available to build on them.
A local building supply company, led by Eliud Cavazos, filed for bankruptcy in December after residential sales dropped roughly 60%, a loss Cavazos put at approximately $5.3 million.
Cavazos said the company had never laid off a single employee in 40 years until the raids forced their hand.
Retailers are also feeling the pressure, with business owner Jeanette Hernandez saying fear is keeping customers away and that the lost sales “killed us this year.”
DHS did not respond to the Times’ request for comment, though a prior statement from the agency described the raids as a measure to protect American workers.
Guerrero said he has backed Trump in every election the president has run in.
“We just never thought that this would come and affect us in the construction industry, but most importantly affect our economy here in South Texas,” he said.
“Construction is one of the main pillars to the economy here. Everybody’s hurting.”
Watch the full video report by The New York Times.
