Trump’s immigration crackdown prompts worries from industry groups

Industry groups ranging from construction to agriculture are raising concerns with the Trump administration over its ongoing immigration crackdown, arguing it is undercutting President Donald Trump’s agenda and weakening the economy, according to multiple groups who spoke with CNN and sources close to the White House.

Worker shortages have been a years-long problem for multiple industries, but the recent abrupt push to end deportation protections for 1.3 million people who had been legally working in the US and the aggressive immigration enforcement push nationwide are exacerbating an already challenging issue, industry representatives say.

Those industry groups — which are generally supportive of other parts of Trump’s economic agenda — are taking their immigration concerns directly to the administration, including the departments of Homeland Security, Labor, and Agriculture, as well as the White House.

Within the administration, the tug between industry concerns and immigration enforcement has prompted internal disagreements over how to pursue other types of enforcement, like at worksites, according to three sources familiar with the ongoing debate. One source close to the White House called the back and forth and consistent influence of lobbying on decisions “a bit manic.”

Caught in the middle is Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who is already under fire from some corners of the president’s base for appearing too soft on immigration.

“A workforce that’s an illegal workforce only grows illegal activity. It doesn’t grow the economy in the long term. It’s a short-term solution, but it’s going to be long term problems,” Mullin said at the National Governors Association meeting last week, citing conversations with labor and industry groups to find solutions.

His remarks at the gathering, where he also called for changes to employment visa programs to address worker shortages, sparked fierce pushback from influential MAGA voices. “I am so fed up with Markwayne Mullin,” far-right Trump ally Laura Loomer wrote on X.

Hours after the event, Mullin posted on X: “NO amnesty for illegal aliens. Ever. We are a nation of laws. If you are illegally present in the United States of America—you will be detained and deported. Period.”

But the episode underscored the delicate balance for Trump of pressing ahead with mass deportations — including, for example, construction workers — while trying to fulfil other promises like lowering housing prices.

“He ran on creating more housing supply,” said Jim Tobin, president and CEO of the National Association of Home Builders, one of the country’s largest trade organisations. “These two things might be working against each other at the moment. But we continue to make our case.”

Trump officials haven’t offered any assurances in return, Tobin said, other than a commitment to immigration enforcement.

Asked by CNN to respond, a Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement: “If people want to come to our country to work, they need to do that by coming here the legal way. The assertion that the only way we can support industries is by allowing unvetted illegal aliens and foreigners to remain in the country is grossly false and lazy.”

White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said, “There is no shortage of American minds and hands to grow our labor force,” adding that “Trump will continue growing our economy, creating opportunity for American workers, and ensuring all sectors have the legal workforce they need to be successful.”

CNN also reached out to the departments of Labor and Agriculture for comment.

The impact of ending TPS

Over the last week, immigration enforcement has ramped up against people who had a form of humanitarian relief known as Temporary Protected Status, which allows beneficiaries to legally live and work in the United States, marking the latest in a string of moves that directly impact employers.

“The TPS push has been really big,” said Jennie Murray, president and CEO of the National Immigration Forum. “That’s really unsettling for business and the economy.”

Haitians, for example, tend to be concentrated in industries such as elder care and manufacturing, while Salvadorans at risk of losing TPS are more likely to work in construction.

Murray stressed that employers want to work with the administration and comply with its demands but also can’t have their workforce decimated overnight without a plan.

Immigration hardliners argue that the American workforce should be prioritized — which industry groups largely echo, with the caveat it takes time to build toward that — and that there needs to be a larger crackdown on employers through worksite enforcement.

“I’m not naïve enough to believe that it would be politically and logistically possible to raid every factory and farm in the United States in the next few weeks and deport everyone that’s there,” said Simon Hankinson, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. “But worksite enforcement has to be part of the overall strategy for it to be successful.”

It can take months, if not years, to prepare for a worksite operation, which is often based on an ongoing criminal investigation. ICE Homeland Security Investigations will generally serve notice of intent to audit a company’s immigration paperwork; perform that audit; and, if issues arise, kick off a criminal investigation.

White House border czar Tom Homan has publicly said he expects HSI to do more of it.

“It’s been made clear they’re going to do this,” he said at an event hosted by the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for reduced immigration.

‘Chaotic’ for construction industry

Trump pledged to bring down home prices and create more housing. But for more than a year, the nation’s homebuilders have told administration officials that their immigration policies keep that from happening.

The residential construction industry is short between 200,000 and 400,000 workers, Tobin said. That comes after decades of underinvestment in skilled trades and technical jobs, all while older workers weren’t backfilled by younger Americans. The result: foreign-born workers fill the gaps.

Foreign-born workers made up more than a quarter of the construction workforce in 2024, a record high, according to NAHB data. The share is even higher among certain trades: more than half of drywall and ceiling installers, plasterers, roofers, painters and flooring installers are immigrants.

Trump’s immigration agenda wasn’t a surprise, Tobin said. But that hasn’t stopped builders from pointing out tensions with other policy goals. The cost of building, and ultimately selling, a home depends on land prices, supply chains and materials costs — and having enough labour to keep the job moving.

“The more we squeeze labour, the more we’re going to increase home prices,” Tobin said.

The construction industry is grappling with multiple immigration enforcement actions, including the expiration of TPS.

“It’s been chaotic,” Associated Builders and Contractors president and CEO Michael Bellaman told CNN. “When employers have people who have been here a number of years, like a couple decades, and they’ve been productive, they know them well and want to do right by them, but options are limited.”

Tobin and Bellaman said their organisations have raised the issue with the White House, and at Labour and DHS. Homebuilders from across the country also visited Capitol Hill during a recent conference, also visited Capitol Hill during a recent conference, Tobin said. Much of their frustration stems from going days without crews showing up, since they fear their sites will be raided next.

“We hear from our members routinely, and it seems like over the last couple of months, those voices have become louder,” Tobin said.

One of the key issues for general contractors is the administration’s approach to people who have temporary permissions to live and work in the US, including those who are beneficiaries of TPS or seeking asylum, according to Brian Turmail, vice president of Association & Industry Image at Associated General Contractors of America.

Employers will ensure that their workforce is in status one week and then, the next week, learn that they lost their permissions because they were stripped by the administration, he said.

“All of these enforcement activities are happening at a time where there’s at least one segment of the industry going full gas and it’s hard to find labor and we don’t have a good pipeline to replace the labor that we currently have,” Turmail said, citing the demand for data centers.

Republicans divided over solutions

Some Republicans viewed the dramatic drop in unlawful crossings at the US southern border as an opportunity to introduce legislation solving for the workforce challenges faced by agriculture, which has struggled to get access to worker visas for sectors that need labor year around.

In a late July letter to the secretaries of Labor, State, and Homeland Security, GOP lawmakers raised concerns regarding the H-2A agricultural guest worker program, which allows foreign nationals to fill seasonal jobs, and urged action to “address growing processing delays, regulatory imbalances, and structural barriers that are threatening the program’s effectiveness for agricultural producers across the United States.”

Among the signers was House Committee on Agriculture Chairman G.T. Thompson, a Pennsylvania Republican, who introduced a farm bill that proposes a path to temporary legal status for some undocumented farmworkers.

“Fixing the H-2A program is the missing piece and necessary for broader enforcement to be effective,” a House agriculture committee aide told CNN. “We can’t be constantly balancing protecting our laws and protecting our food security.”

“We don’t want there to be a bullseye on agriculture’s back. That’s the position ag is in right now because they don’t have a legal alternative to step in and fill in the void,” the aide said.

The bill, however, sparked backlash from immigration hawks in the GOP, including the House Freedom Caucus.

But Trump has previously acknowledged the challenges in the agriculture industry and the administration has tried to make some inroads to extend the program to sectors who have been unable to access H-2A visas, like dairy.

“The biggest thing with dairy and what’s unique with dairy is cows have to be milked 365 days a year and multiple shifts during the day… If workers were to disappear, those cows still need to be milked. You have to be able to move the milk. There are animal concerns, there are economic concerns,” Trey Forsyth, vice president of government and regulatory affairs at the National Milk Producers Federation.

“It affects access to dairy products, and cost of dairy products flows all the way through the supply chain to consumers” Forysth said.

-CNN