Trump Immigration Crackdown Leads to Higher Construction Wages

by JOHN BINDER
6 Aug 2017
Dallas, TX

President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration is already having a positive impact on American workers through increased wages in the construction industry.

In a new report by Fox News, Texas construction companies admitted that Trump’s increased enforcement of immigration was forcing them to pay higher wages to U.S. construction workers.

Fox News reported:

“Half of the workers in construction in Texas are undocumented,” [Stan Marek, CEO of Marek Construction] said. “We do hear that there are a lot of undocumented workers that are leaving the state, going to other states that don’t have the anti-immigrant sentiment and many of them are going back to Mexico.”

Ted Wilson with Residential Strategies, Inc. has run the numbers.

“We’ve seen direct construction costs climb by over 30 percent,” Wilson said, “and a lot of that is directly attributed to what builders are having to pay their subs and trades in wages.”

Meaning, with so few workers out there, construction companies have had to pay more to attract them, which adds to the cost of a home.

The big business lobby and CEOs have long criticized Trump’s immigration crackdown, primarily because their businesses have a direct interest in keeping the pipeline of low-skilled foreign workers coming to the U.S. to drive down the cost of American wages.

Trump’s most recent endorsement of Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) and Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) RAISE Act, which would cut legal immigration in half in order to drive up the wages of U.S. workers, has shown a renewed commitment to the economic nationalist agenda that propelled his election.

Under the RAISE Act, overall legal immigration in the first year would be reduced by 41 percent and in 10 years, immigration would be reduced to 50 percent. It would also prioritize legal immigrants who can speak English and have skills needed for the current U.S. economy.

http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/...ruction-wages/

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“Half of the workers in construction in Texas are undocumented,” [Stan Marek, CEO of Marek Construction] said. “We do hear that there are a lot of undocumented workers that are leaving the state, going to other states that don’t have the anti-immigrant sentiment and many of them are going back to Mexico.”

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Gov. Gregg Abbott also deserves a lot of credit for what's going on in Texas in relation to the illegal immigration problem. He is 100% behind Trump and has taken steps on his own to crack down on illegal immigrants in the state and enhance border security.

Meaning, with so few workers out there, construction companies have had to pay more to attract them, which adds to the cost of a home. BULL! There have always been men and young men in the construction industry and there still are! They were just driven out by Contractors who wanted to line their pockets with illegal workers.


The big business lobby and CEOs have long criticized Trump’s immigration crackdown, primarily because their businesses have a direct interest in keeping the pipeline of low-skilled foreign workers coming to the U.S. to drive down the cost of American wages. Meaning in all honesty GREED!

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Originally Posted by nomas

The big business lobby and CEOs have long criticized Trump’s immigration crackdown, primarily because their businesses have a direct interest in keeping the pipeline of low-skilled foreign workers coming to the U.S. to drive down the cost of American wages. Meaning in all honesty GREED!

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Exactly!

In Dallas, and other parts of Texas, the illegals are not just workers/employees, etc.
There are many, many construction companies now owned by illegals.

One of my sons was replaced in construction by illegals. His boss actually asked my son to check on the site while he was out of town after he was let go. Early one morning my son blocked in a van caught one guy trying to climb out a window of the apartment building he was working on. My son held him by the seat of his pants 1/2 way in the window just hanging there. While he called 911. The others in the van started getting out at the same time the police showed up, They were yelling at my son they were going to kill him. The van was full of stolen stuff from the apartments. His old boss thanked him but didn't offer him his job back. My son said he still has illegals working under the table for him.

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Originally Posted by posylady

One of my sons was replaced in construction by illegals. His boss actually asked my son to check on the site while he was out of town after he was let go. Early one morning my son blocked in a van caught one guy trying to climb out a window of the apartment building he was working on. My son held him by the seat of his pants 1/2 way in the window just hanging there. While he called 911. The others in the van started getting out at the same time the police showed up, They were yelling at my son they were going to kill him. The van was full of stolen stuff from the apartments. His old boss thanked him but didn't offer him his job back. My son said he still has illegals working under the table for him.

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Unfortunately a lot of employers are blinded to the damage caused by their actions. Financial greed is a strong motivator and has a tendency to blind them to the long-term damage they're causing to the future of their country, local communities, friends, and maybe even their own children/grandchildren. Greed can be a very nasty thing indeed.

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Under the RAISE Act, overall legal immigration in the first year would be reduced by 41 percent and in 10 years, immigration would be reduced to 50 percent. It would also prioritize legal immigrants who can speak English and have skills needed for the current U.S. economy.

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Jean thank you so much for posting this article that clarifies the huuge 41% reduction in the FIRST YEAR! I saw this several months ago when the Raise Act was first introduced, had not heard or seen it since and assumed it had been changed to some far more gradual reduction over 10 years. So glad that big hit in the first year is still in the bill and is a very important aspect that the author of your article has thankfully made clear.

:)

Labor shortages are hammering Dallas housing with higher prices, longer build times

Written by Steve Brown, Real Estate EditorConnect with Steve Brown
The North Texas homebuilding industry is hanging out the "help wanted" sign.

Dallas-Fort Worth leads the country in homebuilding.
And builders and contractors are desperate for thousands more workers.

"Dallas is undersupplied by 10,000 to 20,000 construction workers," Scott Davis, with housing analyst Meyers Research, told a meeting of local builders. "We should have about 99,000 people employed in the building industry."

Instead, it's close to 80,000 construction sector workers in North Texas, Davis estimates.

Builders say that many of the workers left the industry during the Great Recession, never to return.

The shortage of construction labor has increased the price of houses, delayed building times and created uncertainty for builders.

"We are definitely seeing an effect on the market," said Michael Turner, CEO of Classic Urban Homes and president of the Dallas Builders Association. "Prices on everything are going up 5 percent, 10 percent, 15 percent year over year."

Wages for construction workers are soaring with the shortages.

Meyers Research estimates that in the last few years, average wages paid to brick masons have increased by more than a third and have gone up by more than 20 percent for paving, roofing and plastering and stucco workers.

The Dallas Builders Association has been working with local school districts to try to motivate more students to look at construction trades for a career.

"We hope to bring more relevancy back to construction trade issues in the high schools," Turner said. He said in recent decades, many of the schools have focused their education track on "college or bust."

"I think there are great careers in the construction trades," Turner said. "We need to let these kids know there are alternative paths to making a great living."

The labor shortfall is one of the biggest contributors to the spike in North Texas new home prices, which have increased by 46 percent since 2012. A new house in the D-FW area now costs about $100,000 more than a mid-priced pre-owned home.

The toll of the worker shortages hits builders both in time and money.

"It's taking a lot longer to build the house," said Justin Webb with Altura Homes. "About three or four years ago, entry-level homebuilders could produce a [basic] house for about $45 per square foot."
"Today, to produce the same house is about $75," Webb said. "It's been a dramatic increase, and I think it's not over."

Builders tell stories of competing contractors stealing workers from their construction sites.

Frank Murphy, with neighborhood developer Wynne/Jackson, said on one of his firm's projects in Collin County, a construction crew didn't show up for work one day.

"We found out a competing builder offered them more," Murphy said. "We had to hire them back at 10 to 15 percent more than he was paying."

Davis, with Meyers Research, said that the building sector labor shortages are likely to get worse.

He said that the average age of construction workers is over 40. And in many skilled trades, the average age is in the 50s.

"We are not replacing these older, experienced workers with younger workers in these critical trades," Davis said.

Many sought-after millennial employees are turning their nose up at the housing industry, he said. Only about 35 percent of the local building workforce is made up of millennials, Meyers Research estimates.

"A lot of the key trades in the construction industry the millennials are not finding attractive," Davis said. "We generally need to look at attracting more of them so we can help meet some of our employment needs."

https://dallasnews.imgix.net/1492108...format&frame=1
High labor costs have contributed to the run up in new home prices in North Texas.
(Meyers Research)

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/...es-build-times

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The Dallas Builders Association has been working with local school districts to try to motivate more students to look at construction trades for a career.

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Excellent!!

:)

What did these construction companies think was going to happen when they continuously turned down American workers in favor of illegals. Soon no one even thinks of going into the trade.

I know a lot of people are coming to Texas, but if we sent all the illegals home, there would be a lot less need for new homes. We would have plenty of homes available. These illegals don't all live in ghettos either. The government programs have allowed them to purchase very nice homes.

I like the idea of building trades in the school.

Perhaps Pres. Trump could do a little reverse affirmative action and give a tax cut to anyone hiring an American!!

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Originally Posted by nntrixie

In Dallas, and other parts of Texas, the illegals are not just workers/employees, etc.
There are many, many construction companies now owned by illegals.

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This is true in NC as well, especially in the residential house framing area. They operate the businesses "legally ",along side their U.S. born children who have legitimate identification thanks to birthright citenzhip!

You know I'm not sure this is even true, the shortage, I mean.

It could be they want to frighten people that we just can't build houses with illegals. It is amazing we managed to do it for a couple of centuries.

It also could mean the illegals are demanding more, and in order to pass it on to the customer, they have to come up with something.

There wouldn't have been a shortage if the illegals hadn't taken their jobs to begin with. Construction was always a decent paying job. Maybe it will be again.

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Originally Posted by posylady

There wouldn't have been a shortage if the illegals hadn't taken their jobs to begin with. Construction was always a decent paying job. Maybe it will be again.

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We could always hope, but somehow I'm just not buying all this hype.