Housing — News & Analysis

'It's been chaotic': Trump's immigration crackdown prompts worries from industry groups (August 8, 2026)

August 8, 2026 — Industry groups from construction to agriculture are pressing the Trump administration over its immigration crackdown, arguing that it undercuts the president's own economic agenda and weakens the economy, CNN reports. Worker shortages have troubled these sectors for years, but the abrupt push to end deportation protections for 1.3 million people who had been legally working in the United States, combined with aggressive nationwide enforcement, has sharpened an already difficult problem. The groups — broadly supportive of other parts of Trump's economic program — have taken their concerns directly to the departments of Homeland Security, Labor, and Agriculture, and to the White House. Three sources described internal administration disagreement over how far to press worksite enforcement, with one source close to the White House calling the lobbying influence on those decisions "a bit manic."

The tension is sharpest in housing. Trump campaigned on lowering home prices and expanding supply, but homebuilders have spent more than a year telling administration officials that its immigration policies make that impossible. Jim Tobin, president and CEO of the National Association of Home Builders, put the residential construction shortfall at 200,000 to 400,000 workers, the result of decades of underinvestment in skilled trades and of older workers never being replaced by younger Americans. Foreign-born workers filled that gap, making up more than a quarter of the construction workforce in 2024, a record high by NAHB's count, and more than half of drywall and ceiling installers, plasterers, roofers, painters, and flooring installers. Because the cost of building and selling a home turns on land, supply chains, materials, and having enough labor to keep a job moving, Tobin told CNN that "the more we squeeze labor, the more we're going to increase home prices." Builders report crews going missing for days at a time out of fear their sites will be raided next, and Tobin said those complaints have grown louder over recent months.

Enforcement against holders of Temporary Protected Status has driven much of the recent disruption. Jennie Murray of the National Immigration Forum noted that Haitian TPS holders concentrate in elder care and manufacturing while Salvadorans at risk of losing status are more likely to work in construction, and said employers want to comply but cannot absorb the loss of a workforce overnight without a plan. Brian Turmail of the Associated General Contractors of America described employers confirming their workers are in status one week only to learn the next that the administration has stripped those permissions. Michael Bellaman, president and CEO of Associated Builders and Contractors, said employers with long-tenured, productive workers now have limited options. A Homeland Security spokesperson rejected the premise, saying those who want to work in the country must come legally, and White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said there is no shortage of American workers. Meanwhile some Republicans, including House Agriculture Committee Chairman G.T. Thompson, have pushed to fix the H-2A guest worker program and open a path to temporary legal status for some undocumented farmworkers — drawing backlash from the House Freedom Caucus and other immigration hawks.