Summary

Donald Trump’s plan to deport millions of undocumented immigrants is causing alarm in Texas, where industries like construction heavily depend on undocumented labor, comprising nearly 60% of the workforce.

Experts warn mass deportations could cripple the state’s economy, already strained by labor shortages and low population growth.

Workers like Veronica Carrasco, an undocumented house painter, fear family separations and job losses.

While Trump signals determination, some hope his policies might push Congress to enact immigration reform, such as a guest-worker program, to balance economic needs with national security concerns.

  • kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world
    50·
    12 hours ago

    Guys, remember how a ton of immigrants booked it out of Florida last year after they passed one of the toughest anti-immigration laws in the county and left businesses struggling to fill the jobs they left behind and replace the years of knowledge, experience and expertise in their roles? You see how they’re still struggling with this loss? Now do that on a national scale. Cut the workforce by almost 10 percent. Burden businesses and consumers with tariffs inflating the costs of international goods. Cripple, destroy, or downsize a bunch of government departments that support safety, health, transportation, and an educated workforce. And watch the inevitable national scale strikes and protests bring the supply chain to a halt. This is my prediction for the next 4 years (maybe the next year or two, honestly).

    • KinglyWeevil@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      15·
      8 hours ago

      It’s not even the first time. Several years ago Georgia cracked down on employers of illegal immigrants and you know what happened? A whole shitload of produce rotted in the fields, because it turns out picking vegetables in 90 degree heat with 100% humidity for 14 hours a day 6 or 7 days a week for minimum wage isn’t really a job people want.

    • 8ender@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      8 hours ago

      If you were a nation state that wanted to destabilize the US and had deep pockets this is exactly what you’d want and why it’ll happen because Trumps administration is for sale to the highest bidder

    • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
      301·
      12 hours ago

      And watch the inevitable national scale strikes and protests bring the supply chain to a halt.

      This is the part that is unlikely to happen. If past experience is any judge, the GOP’s propaganda machine will successfully shift the blame yet again, and morons will wholeheartedly believe that the solution to our problems is that the fuckheads aren’t being authoritarian enough, and we need to crack down harder on [insert bogeyman here].

      • Icalasari@fedia.io
        20·
        11 hours ago

        And they’ll use prison camps to fill labour voids, work people to death, and make even more restrictive laws to fill the shortages, continue until something gives and it collapses because they either can’t any more or the blue states start to riot in an attempt to break free of the US, either case resulting in GoP blaming “The enemy we are at war with” for the shortages and degrading conditions

  • AliSaket@mander.xyzEnglish
    27·
    11 hours ago

    The interesting thing is that they are only one in a long line of businesses/industries openly admitting to employing undocumented immigrants, i.e. illegal hiring practices. It is clear, why these businesses are doing this: They can pay less (and the on-cost) and if at any point there is a dispute, they can threaten with the authorities, even if it is illegal in places to do so. If we can believe the numbers, they make up more than 4% of the workforce. Something that has been so seldomly prosecuted, it has become so prevalent, that they’re talking about it in the open.

  • RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com
    8·
    12 hours ago

    No that can’t be. Those companies would violate some laws if they did that, wouldn’t it? They would never do that, I’m sure! 🙄

  • Kaboom@reddthat.com
    224·
    11 hours ago

    Man Lemmy lefties are just comically evil. Literally advocating for an underclass.