Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Is Leaving Mass. Construction Sites Without Workers

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The state’s construction industry relies heavily on immigrant workforce, both documented and not. President Trump’s crackdown on immigration is putting parts of the industry at risk of a labor crunch, felt most in small to mid-sized residential projects that normally employ higher percentages of immigrant workers. This directly threatens to lead to project delays and higher costs amid a severe housing shortage.

Fear of deportation, Oliveira and others in the industry said, results in workers and subcontractors — who are particularly important to residential construction projects — refusing to show up to work if they hear of an ICE sighting. Some have decided to uproot their lives and leave the country.

Oliveira only takes jobs in Massachusetts, where he said it feels relatively safer, after being detained by ICE at a project in Maine two years ago (before Trump was in office). He regularly checks in with his friends and colleagues who do not have proper work permits.

While the Trump administration said it is targeting illegal immigration, its recent actions are also stoking fear among those who legally reside and work in the country. In May, immigration services announced that those seeking a green card must leave the US to apply. Last month, the US Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration can end Temporary Protected Status for people from 17 countries, including Haiti — many of whom work in construction.

About one in four construction workers in the state is an immigrant, according to 2025 data from the Economic Policy Institute. Immigrants are roughly 26 percent of the construction workforce nationwide, according to an analysis from the National Association of Home Builders.

A report published in June by Boston Indicators and MassINC concluded that the state is not on track to meet its workforce goals, and will need to add approximately 64,000 new immigrants annually through 2030 to stabilize the working-age population. The state is slated to add only about 29,000 by the end of this year.

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A construction labor shortage could hinder the state’s plans to add 220,000 homes by 2035 to address the housing crisis. The housing market is already burdened by sluggish permitting and ballooning costs driven by interest rates and material prices, slowing development and construction across the state. Massachusetts issued just 12,096 unit permits last year, the fewest since 2012.

Meanwhile, developers and contractors seeking work find themselves turning down offers due to a lack of available workers.

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