MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
President-elect Trump is promising to round up and deport millions of undocumented immigrants. The potential sweep is strongly supported by Republicans in deep-red Texas, which already has its own border security initiative, known as Operation Lone Star. There is growing concern, though, in Texas that deportations will harm families and cripple an important business sector. Julian Aguilar reports from El Paso.
JULIAN AGUILAR, BYLINE: That Texas depends on undocumented labor is one of the state's open secrets. Despite the tough-on-immigration stance Texas Republicans have embraced, undocumented workers still play a pivotal role in keeping key industries here going, including agriculture and the thriving construction industry. And now members of the state's undocumented labor force are deeply worried. Veronica Carrasco, an undocumented immigrant from Honduras, has worked as a painter for a home remodeling company in Mesquite, Texas, for 12 years.
VERONICA CARRASCO: (Through interpreter) I think this administration is going to be more forceful than he was in the past. I don't think there is anything holding him back now, and it does make me a little sad. It makes me frustrated and worried. I am a single mom. I have three children.
AGUILAR: One of her kids is here legally, she says, and two are U.S. citizens. She says they've had difficult conversations about their future should she be deported. They've sought legal advice if she's forcibly returned to Honduras. She's adamant that immigrants, undocumented or not, aren't stealing jobs from legal residents or citizens.
CARRASCO: (Through interpreter) I didn't come to take an opportunity away from anyone. What happens is that no one wants to do the dirty work. No one wants to do the hard work.
AGUILAR: Some economists and industry leaders are worried, too. Construction in the Lone Star state is booming, and they warned that Trump's promise of mass deportations could collapse the $106 billion Texas construction industry.
STAN MAREK: Housing would disappear. I think they'd lose half their labor.
AGUILAR: That's Stan Marek, the CEO of MAREK, a Houston-based commercial and residential construction giant.
MAREK: It would devastate our industry. We wouldn't finish our highways. We wouldn't finish our schools.
AGUILAR: Marek says Texas has relied on undocumented labor for decades, and if Trump makes good on mass deportations, it would shock the state's economy. For years, Marek, a Republican, has pressed for federal and state immigration legislation that would allow more migrants to legally live and work in the United States through guest worker programs. That would include background checks and IDs for applicants, similar to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program known as DACA. Marek hopes Trump's proposed crackdown finally prompts Washington to act.
MAREK: A thing that he's doing that Obama couldn't do - he's challenging Congress. Either you fix this, or I'll fix it. And that's the way we've got to look at this.
AGUILAR: In 2022, more than a half-million immigrants worked in the Texas construction industry, according to a report by the American Immigration Council. Almost 60% of that workforce was undocumented. Economist Ray Perryman, CEO of the Waco-based Perryman Group, says a mass roundup of undocumented workers would wreck the construction industry.
RAY PERRYMAN: It's not remotely practical to round up and deport everybody, and we simply don't have an economic structure that can sustain that. I mean, there are more undocumented people working in Texas right now than there are unemployed people in Texas.
AGUILAR: But so far, Texas' leadership isn't phased by a potential hit to the state's workforce. Here's Republican Governor Greg Abbott on Fox News earlier this week.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
GREG ABBOTT: We just want to make sure that the Trump administration understands we are here to help, whether it be to deny illegal entry, whether it be to arrest those who are here illegally, whether it be to assist in the deportation process.
AGUILAR: That has construction workers worried. George Romero is part of a two-person crew that does home remodeling in El Paso.
GEORGE ROMERO: I don't see how the economy is going to get better when the workers aren't there to do the job. Prices are going to go up again, and it's not what they say it's going to be.
AGUILAR: So far, Trump has signaled he's serious about carrying out this campaign promise. He recently reiterated he's prepared to use the U.S. military to assist in mass deportations. And this week, the state's general land office offered the incoming Trump administration more than 1,400 acres of South Texas border land, quote, "to construct deportation facilities." For NPR News, I'm Julian Aguilar in El Paso. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.