Despite some efforts by the state government to cut red tape and accelerate the rebuilding, Angelenos are facing another obstacle: the federal government’s “mass deportations” agenda which will negatively impact the already dire shortage of construction workers.
Immigrants make up 41% of the construction workforce in California, according to the National Association of Home Builders. Some of those immigrants don’t have legal status in the United States, while others are on visas, permanent residency or some other status.
Immigrant workers offer skills crucial to the construction industry. Many Americans have moved on from construction work in favor of other professions, and businesses rely on foreign workers to move their projects forward.
But these gaps aren’t easy to fill. The visa program that’s supposed to help companies bring in seasonal workers, the H-2B program, imposes severe restrictions that make it hard for businesses to attract workers legally. This is, in part, because such visas are capped at 66,000 visas annually—for the entire country. (The Department of Homeland Security has often authorized more visas due to the massive demand for workers.)
The construction worker shortage in California and across the nation, as well as the problems with the H-2B visa, far predate the Trump administration. But Trump 1.0 certainly made it worse: the administration further cut H-2B visas during the COVID-19 pandemic and implemented programs that led to declines in construction labor.
Donald Trump’s second administration is enacting even more restrictions on immigrant construction workers, the companies that want to hire them and the consumers who wish to build using their services.
Industry leaders are pleading with the administration to establish new visa programs to address the shortages, but such pleas have fallen on deaf ears so far.
Rebuilding efforts in Los Angeles look bleak at this juncture. Dan Gatsby, founder of the Los Angeles Builders Association, said in an interview with CBS News that rebuilding what was lost in Los Angeles after the fires is going to be “very difficult” without the skills and work immigrants bring. He estimates that rebuilding efforts may take up to 40 years as a consequence.
Fewer workers means higher costs as well. Angelenos will face larger bills in order to rebuild what they lost in the fires. Shortages also bring with them longer waiting times for construction services for everyone, not just for those who lost their homes and businesses to the fires.
Immigrants are not simply a large number of the carpenters, painters, electricians and roofers who build the homes in Los Angeles. They live alongside American Angelenos, who trade with them and share their communities, who buy the products and services that they sell and build a life alongside them as well as their homes. The human toll of the administration’s immigration agenda will be massive in a city that 3.6 million immigrants call their home.
Ultimately, the U.S. immigration system, which primarily restricts work, needs to be re-envisioned and stripped of this anti-work premise. Until that happens, one way to help rebuild Los Angeles is to uncap the H-2B visa to allow workers and companies to trade with more freedom. As an additional step, California’s U.S. representatives could work on introducing a bill to create a new uncapped visa focused on bringing in laborers to work in disaster relief, with a path for long-term residency for these individuals.
Los Angeles shouldn’t be held back by the federal government from rebuilding its homes and businesses. While the entire immigration system ultimately needs rethinking, relatively minor changes to current immigration policy could let crews get to work tomorrow without creating new controls. Importantly, the current fear-inducing climate needs to shift toward one that’s welcoming of peaceful, hard-working legal immigrants seeking to build a life in America as well as the roofs over Angelenos’ heads.
Agustina Vergara Cid is a columnist for the Southern California News Group and a Young Voices contributor.
