Posted on 09/23/2026 8:10:52 AM PDT by TheDon
In a new survey, homebuilders around the country say ramped-up Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdowns are creating huge headaches for their businesses.
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What they're saying: "ICE is becoming a very large issue and causing labor shortages," says a Houston builder in a survey conducted earlier this month by John Burns Research and Consulting, which regularly asks homebuilders about market conditions.
A builder in Richmond, Virginia, says: "ICE has had significant impacts to vendors throughout Virginia/Maryland in the last 90 days. ... This has had a major impact on cycle times and the ability to start new houses."
Jacksonville, Florida: "Current immigration enforcement efforts in our region are causing a strain on both the labor force, labor costs and cycle times."
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More in Business Sep 22, 2026 - Business Homebuilders say they struggle to find workers amid ICE crackdowns
Emily Peck
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Data: National Association of Home Builders analysis of 2024 census data; Chart: Emily Peck/Axios In a new survey, homebuilders around the country say ramped-up Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdowns are creating huge headaches for their businesses.
Why it matters: The labor strain comes on top of other challenges for the industry: rising mortgage rates, higher prices for key inputs driven by tariffs and the Iran war, as well as growing competition for resources with builders of data centers.
What they're saying: "ICE is becoming a very large issue and causing labor shortages," says a Houston builder in a survey conducted earlier this month by John Burns Research and Consulting, which regularly asks homebuilders about market conditions.
A builder in Richmond, Virginia, says: "ICE has had significant impacts to vendors throughout Virginia/Maryland in the last 90 days. ... This has had a major impact on cycle times and the ability to start new houses." Jacksonville, Florida: "Current immigration enforcement efforts in our region are causing a strain on both the labor force, labor costs and cycle times." The intrigue: The remarks in the homebuilder survey were unprompted, says Rick Palacios, director of research at the consulting firm.
"All we asked about on the topic in our survey was construction cycle times," he says. "The comments on 'ICE and immigration' were completely unsolicited." Zoom in: The strains come after three straight months of record ICE arrests — in August the agency said it arrested 50,925 people across the country, the highest number of "illegal aliens" arrested in a single month.
Between the lines: These arrests have been less conspicuous than high-profile raids that came early in the year, but impactful — called a "shadow surge" by one of the administration's opponents.
Zoom out: Immigration raids discourage legally authorized workers from reporting to job sites, Bill Owens, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders, recently said.
Higher mortgage rates and rising material costs are also weighing on the industry, he said. Building material costs are up by a median 6.7% from last year, according to one NAHB survey. The other side: "ICE is not arresting people legally in the country," said White House spokesperson Lauren Bis.
"There is no shortage of American minds and hands to grow our labor force." The administration has said its new Office of Immigration Policy will help employers navigate immigration policies. The big picture: Immigrants made up more than 26% of the construction workforce in 2024, the most recent Census Bureau data on the industry.
But in certain trades, the share is much higher — immigrants make up 57% of those working on drywall and 53% of roofers, according to an analysis of that data released earlier this year by NAHB.
is that they have knowingly been hiring illegals for years.
Round up every builder that complains.
And also start prosecuting those who hire illegals.
I call bullsh*t. People are supposed to be leaving Commiefornia in droves but there’s new construction going on all around us.
Many firms foolishly adopted a business model that relied on cheap and tractable illegal immigrant labor. Now they find themselves in pain. Too bad. They need to go back to the traditional model of hiring and training Americans at good wages. If they cannot do that, they deserve to go out of business.
Maybe hire some Americans. Right now, if you can’t speak Spanish, most of these won’t hire you.
Or, heaven forbid, pay a fair wage.
I’ve never met a building contractor that wasn’t a crook.
Well gosh.....maybe you need to hire AMERICANS instead of illegals....which is....y’know....ILLEGAL for you to do in the first place.
Homebuilders around here only hire immigrants, both legal and illegal. It’s a matter of wages. Period.
No they are facing paying higher wages to American workers. And they can’t stop crying about it.
Who’s going to pick our cotton?
Instead of raising new home costs we should be reducing the government mandated regulations that drive up the costs and then the builders can pay americans to do the work. same with cars. Someone can build a $15,000 car somewhere.
Start jailing home builders and other businesses that hire illegals and watch how fast this problem goes away. Jail landlords who rent to them while we’re at it.
I thought the left’s mantra was the illegals were doing work American’s won’t do.
What it really was: Illegals doing work for companies who wouldn’t pay American wage scales.
Maybe the strategy would be to offer American pay scales for your workers instead of migrant invader pay scales...
Struggle to find dirt cheap labor is what they REALLY mean.
I made the mistake of allowing a mexican crew to both roof my home and later another mexican crew paint my home.
Both experiences had major drawbacks.
Most recently I took bids to paint our kitchen cabinets....I told every company that submitted bids I had one non negotiable condition. NO hispanics on the crew.
Every company said they totally understood that request and could certainly accommodate it.
Never again.
You have never met my dad. That being said. There are very few honest ones out there. They are always robbing Peter to Paul and it blows up in their face when there is a down turn. Most of them have a crooked lender on their payroll also.
A lot of businesses owners who’ve been doing this need to be indicted and prosecuted.
I’ve long proposed a $5,000 per day per illegal worker fine and a mandatory 5 year prison sentence for any violations. Include the HR department and the officers of the enterprise in this.
Make E-Verify mandatory nationwide, too.
L
...or mow our lawns..?
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