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Many North -North -Americans who raised at the polls for the 2024 election voted President Donald Trump. Associated Press projected it 43% of the blog voted for Trumpwhich ran on a platform that included mass deportation as a primary policy.
“We wanted [Trump] To get a solution, “said George Carrillo, co -founder and CEO of Hispanic Construction Council, a non -profit organization designed to advance the objectives of politics and improve the landscape for Hispanic construction workers and companies.
Carrillo said that many Hispanic citizens of the United States are generations of the arrival of their families in the country, which means that they do not personally share the experience of immigrants. However, he said that policies such as mass deportation are not realistic and potentially detrimental to the economy and for North -Americans, who may have undocumented family members.
Here, Carrillo talks about the immersion of the construction of the impact of the north -Americans on the construction and the need to reform realistic and community immigration.
The following has been edited for brevity and clarity
Construction division: You said that the North -Hispanic Americans want the President to have a solution to immigration. What kind of solutions are there?
George Carrillo: The solution cannot be a mass deportation because we cannot afford it, nor do we have logistical resources for the mass deportation of 11 million people. It is simply not possible. I think Obama deported about 400,000 people in a year. This is not about 11 million people. Trump cannot replace this. Nor can you keep that pace.
So let’s talk about practical solutions. For example, how do we solve our labor visas? The construction industry and the agricultural industry do not have enough work visas.
George Carrillo
Permission granted by the Hispanic Construction Council
I calculate between 700,000 and 900,000 individuals in the construction that are not documented. There is not enough work visas to recover them if they are deported. And we have a deficit right now of almost 500,000 people in the United States under construction. It is not a practical solution.
Therefore, we recognize that not everyone wants to be a citizen of the United States. Not everyone wants to stay. There are those who want to come, work and return home. But right now, we can’t afford that. They will not return home, cross -on a border, they will get more danger, right? And this is a failure of a simple process, which is to open the visas of the workforce to be equitable to the needs of the industry.
Is the improvement of the workplace visas a realistic policy goal?
Absolutely. Rece. Maria Salazar de Miami is a republican and congressman, created a bill called Dignity Act of 2023. I think they have to make some minor adjustments to this bill, but we put it on the ground, let’s leave it.
Is addressed to border safety. These are the visa problems of the workforce. He went to the Dreamers. It is a complete package of immigration reform.
This estimate of 700 to 900,000 unauthorized workers is a critical mass of construction labor force. What have you heard in terms of hope for politics reform businessmen?
It has been very different depending on the industry. A general contractor who works in federal contracts are usually like: “We have no opinion. It really doesn’t bother us.” Due to the regulations, all its employees must go through fund controls carried out by the federal government. So, do they have a problem with having a person without documentation on the payroll? Probably not.
When we think of large residential housing builders and developers, they do not necessarily care about it, but they know that it affects their industry because they do not self -carry their own work. They are in all the United States and have subcontractors.
These subcontractors are those who care about trying to fulfill the contract’s obligations. They are the most concerned and worried. We have 70,000 businessmen who are Hispanic in the construction industry. So who do you think is your template? His relatives are his relatives and some of his relatives are probably undocumented.
So are they worried? Absolutely. They do not want to draw too much attention to their company or their family because they do not want to sport. They are good people and need them to work, in order to fulfill their contract obligations with their GC. Thus, at the general level of the contractor, they are worried that they know the effect on their subcontractor community.
What actions can an employer do to prepare for greater scrutiny or to ensure the future of their workforce?
There are a couple of things. One is that companies need to understand that even if they have no one without documentation, they could be subject to audit due to their I-9 process. They may not have workers without documentation, but have followed the right policies according to federal rules and regulations when it comes to the I-9? There will be a microscope on companies through the federal government. There is risk potential, although they have never hired a person without documentation.
For others, what I encourage them to do is educate, whether their employees or their family, really look at the benefit of being left and what is the benefit of saying: “You know what? It’s time for us to return to our original country.” It’s a hard conversation to have and a little struggle.
Are you encouraging people to consider voluntarily out of the United States?
Where I come from is a financial perspective. If I have someone here who lives here from 20 to 30 years without any citizenship for them, they have paid a system that will never be paid again. When it is time to retire, there is no social security for them. There is no medicaid for them.
And if they said, “Well, I will only return home in my original country,” they have not paid for taxes in this country. And so you have nothing. I have seen countless people who have reached this retirement age and then have nothing.
This is my concern that we must start to have in our community. What is in the best interest in our community? And as business owners, we hope we provide this level of education because this labor force is incredibly qualified.
Mexico’s economy 20 years ago seemed very different. For that person who has all this great experience here in the United States, what is now in Mexico that they can probably live even a better life? They have more employment skills and opportunities.
But also for businessmen, I asked them to start going through the process to obtain work visas from other countries. We will flood the federal government with applications so that they can see the need. But if we do not apply it, why would they give us if there is no need? If we do not show the need? So let’s start presenting applications and start trying to make people through the legal route and let’s see if they can solve it.
What else should the construction people pay attention?
I hope people see and understand that we really need to start having more conversations about the Hispanic population because they represent such a great part of the industry.
As a small example, Hispanic have the Highest mortality rate in the construction industryAnd we have the rate of higher travel, travel and falls. This is a huge damage to the progress of a job.
The cost of general responsibility and insurance for a business owner is talking about billions of dollars. Can you imagine what it would be like if we were able to leave them 40%? How much does the business owner save? How much healthier labor do we have?
As a community, we have been very calm. We have a bass and we work hard. Therefore, these topics must begin to speak because if we help solve some of these things, we talk about billions of dollars in additional income and profitability in this industry that goes through the door because we do not have the right conversations.
