Cnn
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On the outskirts of Altadena, where one of the most destructive fire storms in the history of Los Angeles took place The group of volunteers worked last week to pick up the branches and the leaves of fallen, removing the fuel for possible future fires, putting them in bags and taking them.
One of these people, Cesar, a Mexican immigrant in his sixties, works as a daily in the building, winning jobs helping to build and renovate houses around Los Angeles.
Although Cesar, who only asked to be identified by his first name, told CNN that he has been working in California for over 30 years, he is undocumented.
But today, the prospect of massive evictions under the second term of President Donald Trump could lead to the loss of building workers like CESAR – and risks seriously hindering the reconstruction efforts of the more than 12,000 structures that would have been destroyed by fires.
The Los Angeles Housing Manufacturers told CNN that they provided that the reconstruction of the city after the destruction caused by the fires of Palisades and Eaton would be a slow and difficult process.
The key to this effort lies in daily workers, mostly undocumented, who often do the work physically painful and dangerous to clear the rubble after the withdrawal of a natural disaster.
Cesar and the rest of his cleaning team are “second stakeholders,” said Victor Narro, project director of the UCLA work center. In the shadows, these workers have contributed to the construction of the second largest city in the United States and, once the destruction is completed, they will help restore burnthed houses and businesses, said Narro.
“If there are expulsions, who will do the work of this important immigrant workforce?” said Narro.
Building in Los Angeles is already notoriously difficult due to a labyrinth of license and administrative formalities. Waiting for full payment of insurance companies could also delay the reconstruction process. In addition, Los Angeles is one of the most expensive real estate markets in America. Today, with thousands of displaced people, some experts provide that the city’s housing market will tighten even more and that construction costs could increase.
“If Trump is raging on illegal immigration, this will likely affect low -end houses,” said Dougal Murray, CEO of Racing Green Group, a tailor -made house manufacturer in Hollywood and Malibu. “People with a lower budget will be more likely to work with non-approved subcontractors or with those who employ undocumented immigrants” due to the lower cost of their hiring.
Bob Kleiman, owner of a house construction company in Woodland Hills, just outside Los Angeles, said that he hoped that Trump administration would realize that massive evictions could harm a city shaken by Two of the most destructive fires in its history.
“I am optimistic and I think they will not cut the grass under the foot of an already aggravated situation,” said Kleiman. “I hope they will not go ahead with something that would still add salt to this injury. »»
But Trump acceded to the presidency for the second time by promising to intensify border security and to expel a record number of migrants – and his allies declared that undocumented immigrants shared the responsibility of the crisis of the ‘Affordability of housing in the United States.
Only a few weeks after Trump’s re -election, the Los Angeles municipal council unanimously voted for the adoption of a “sanctuary city” order, prohibiting municipal employees from helping immigration and customs services, except If federal law requires it.
But on Monday, Trump began his mandate by taking a series of radical immigration executive measures, in particular by declaring a national emergency at the southern border of the United States and by ordering federal officials to take measures “to guarantee that The so-called sanctuary jurisdictions … do not have access ”. to federal funds.
Trump also indicated that he would coordinate immigration operations in major cities with ICE.
More than a third of building workers in the United States were born abroad, according to the American Community Survey 2023 of the US Census Bureau. California is tied with New Jersey with regard to the proportion of workers born abroad in the highest construction sector of all American states, or 52 %.
Although the Census Office does not raise questions directly about immigration status, National Immigration Forum, an organization that militates in favor of immigration reform, believes that undocumented workers represent nearly a quarter of the building’s workforce in the United States.
The simple replacement of these workers by legal workers may not be a viable solution. Even if it is estimated that millions of undocumented people are in the country, there were 276,000 jobs in the construction sector in November, the latest data available, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is a drop compared to more than 400,000 jobs open last year, but this remains a significant deficit.
Cameron Irwin, owner of Cambuild Constructions, a residential manufacturer from the Altadena region, said that he had noticed a shortage of qualified construction workers in Los Angeles.
“Building a house is an arduous task. It is a difficult job that requires a lot of physical work, ”said Irwin. “People discover that they can do something for a similar salary, and that they don’t have to make this effort. This is where undocumented workers come.”
Irwin’s house in Altadena was destroyed by fires at the beginning of the month.
Cesar, the man who works as a daily life in Los Angeles, told CNN that he thought that massive evictions would do more harm than simple individuals like him.
“California is the fifth world economy. This is due in part to the economic contributions of the immigrant community, “he said in an interview with Spanish. “If these threats of expulsion were implemented, it would have a huge impact, and not only at the level of the state. It would be destructive. »»