With President Trump's immigration crackdown comes all manner of side effects. That's inevitable; when you have as many as 20 million people in the country illegally, and when a significant number of them are willing to work under the table for low wages, kicking a bunch of them out is going to make some of those employers maladjusted. Of course, smacking them with charges for knowingly hiring illegal aliens would sting a bit, too.
Now, on Tuesday, we see a mildly whiny report that Trump's immigration crackdown is making it harder for construction companies to find workers. But they aren't telling you everything.
The Trump administration’s immigration policies are leading to worker shortages and delayed projects across the construction industry, according to a new report.
A survey conducted in July and August by the Associated Contractors of America and the National Center for Construction Education and Research found more than one in four respondents said their firms were affected by increased immigration enforcement in the past six months.
Respondents said increased immigration enforcement is making it more difficult for firms to recruit workers. Ten percent of firms reported using the H-2B visa program, which is used for recruiting nonagricultural foreign workers, to recruit salaried and hourly workers.
Congress set the cap for H-2B visa allowances at 66,000 in fiscal year 2026. The program offers temporary work for the first and second halves of the year to foreign employees.
They are hiring H2B workers, of course, because those workers are cheaper than American workers. If they weren't, there would be no demand. But why would we, as a nation, import workers when we have people here without jobs?
But that's not the real eyebrow-raiser in this piece. See if you can find the omission here:
Five percent of respondents reported their jobsites or work sites were visited by immigration agents and 10% said workers did not report or quit due to rumored immigration enforcement allegations.
Contractors in Georgia, Virginia, Alabama, Nebraska and South Carolina were more likely to be impacted by immigration enforcement, according to the report.
The report found worker shortages were the most commonly listed reason for project delays. Two-thirds of firms reported at least one project in the last six months was postponed, canceled or scaled back. The survey took into account more than 1,300 individuals across various contracting and construction firms.
Work sites aren't being visited by immigration agents looking for H2B workers. They are being visited by immigration agents looking for illegal aliens, and, as we noted recently in a story from Georgia, they are finding them.
Read More: New: U.S. Releasing Koreans From Georgia ICE Raid - Back to Korea
New: 450 Illegal Aliens Busted at Georgia Hyundai Plant - South Korea 'Concerned'
Will illegal aliens work cheaply, even cheaper than the H2B immigrants? It seems likely. Will removing those illegal aliens require construction companies to offer higher pay to attract American workers, or even legal immigrants? That, too, seems likely.
Does any of that matter? No. Not one tiny bit.
We don't ignore laws because some private businesses may be required to pay higher wages to hire people who are in the country legally. We don't ignore laws because someone has been in the country illegally for five years, or ten, or a thousand. We don't ignore laws because they have an anchor-baby child in college. We enforce the law, because it's the law, and what government - the law - does for anyone, it must do for everyone, or it must do for no one. If anyone doesn't like the law as it stands, they are free to work to change it, but they cannot ignore it - or defy it.
So it's causing some headaches in some quarters because the federal government is now enforcing immigration laws, as they should have been doing all along.
So what?
Editor's Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie about President Trump, his administration, and conservatives.
Help us continue to expose their left-wing bias by reading news you can trust. Join RedState VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.