2 Nov 2026 · 1h 19m · Peter Baker, Michael Barbaro, Lindsay Garrison, Mario Guerrero · 17 quoted facts
Hispanic construction-industry owners in Texas's Rio Grande Valley helped deliver Republican wins in 2024. They are now turning on President Trump because immigration raids are removing the skilled, mostly undocumented workers their businesses depend on. The episode argues that mass enforcement is hurting the same entrepreneurs who backed it, and that this is driving a political shift in the Valley.
The central tension is between what the builders voted for and what they got. They wanted the border controlled and criminals removed, and they believed in Trump's American dream story. Instead, raids hit their own crews, citizens feared being stopped, and lobbying in Washington brought little relief. The framer 'A' resents them, and the episode ends with polling showing a sharp swing toward Democrats.
Framing and foundation crews are among the most heavily undocumented trades, and the builders say they cannot replace skilled framers. One small builder went from about 25 houses in a normal year to twelve in 2025.
Interviewees said they backed Trump because he promised to remove criminals, 'the worst of the worst'. They felt betrayed when enforcement reached long-settled workers at job sites.
Builders say apprentices start at $15 an hour, more than double the state minimum wage, yet citizens avoid the heat and hard labor. High schools also teach almost no framing or masonry, so the skills cannot be quickly replaced.
Builders described carrying passports or licenses and being asked for papers while driving a work truck. Many had assumed that in a majority-Latino region racial profiling was not something they would face.
The framer 'A' said he raised his price on one house from about $13,050 to nearly $17,000 because few framers remain. He told the builder it was the result of the vote.
The raids are removing skilled workers, often from job sites, which is slowing or stopping home building and hurting their businesses. Builders in the episode said they backed Trump for his promise to remove criminals, not hardworking neighbors.
Builders in the episode say no. They argue citizens don't want the physically punishing work even at about $15 an hour, and local schools don't teach the trades, so it would take years to train replacements.
It is a group of 159 construction and real estate businesses, mostly in the Rio Grande Valley, led by executive director Mario Guerrero. It lobbied lawmakers and ICE officials about the raids and is starting a trade school.
They met members of Congress and ICE officials, but said they got no clear answer on their rights. Guerrero says an ICE client later told him orders had come to stop attacking job sites, and the raids briefly slowed before picking up again.
Barbaro reports that Latino voters in Texas split evenly between Trump and Kamala Harris in 2024. A new Times poll found them favoring Democrat James Talarico over Republican Ken Paxton for Senate by nearly forty points.
Stated by the speakers. Each quote matches the transcript, which shows what was said, not that it is true.
The South Texas Builders Association, led by executive director Mario Guerrero, is a group of 159 construction and real estate businesses, mostly in the Rio Grande Valley.
“It's a group of 159 construction and real estate businesses, mostly across the Rio Grande Valley.”
The Rio Grande Valley voted Democratic for generations, though it is described as more politically purple than blue.
“For generations, the valley voted Democrat, but it's more of a purple place than a blue one.”
The largest immigration surge in U.S. history, which peaked under the Biden administration, reached the Rio Grande Valley starting in 2021.
“The largest immigration surge in U. S. history, which peaked during the Biden administration, had landed in the Rio Grande Valley.”
At the peak of the surge, about 10,000 immigrants a day were crossing the southern U.S. border.
“At one point, 10,000 immigrants a day were crossing into the United States along the southern border.”
According to the McAllen Police Department, property crime rose slightly in 2022 but overall crime in McAllen fell during the surge period.
“For example, according to the McAllen Police Department, property crime did rise slightly in 2022, but overall crime was actually down in the city during this period.”
Construction employs the highest share of immigrant labor of any U.S. field, nearly 30% nationally and higher in Texas.
“Nationwide, the construction field employs the highest percentage of immigrant labor, nearly 30%, and in Texas, those numbers are even higher.”
One small Rio Grande Valley builder said he built twelve houses in 2025 instead of his usual 25 and had contracts for only three going into 2026.
“I talked to one small builder who told me in a normal year, he'd build around 25 houses. By the end of 2025, he'd only built twelve, and going into 2026, he only had contracts for three.”
A large Rio Grande Valley concrete company laid off more than 100 workers and then filed for bankruptcy a few months later.
“A big concrete company told me that around this time, he laid off more than 100 workers, and a few months later, he filed for bankruptcy.”
Mario Guerrero says construction apprentices start at $15 an hour, more than double Texas's minimum wage.
“And Mario argues it's not because they're not paid well. He points out that an apprentice starts out making fifteen an hour.”
Julio Carranza was born in 1985 in McAllen, Texas, and spent his first five years living in Reynosa, Mexico.
“He was born in 1985 in McAllen, Texas. But the first five years of his life, he lived in Reynosa, Mexico, just over the border.”
Colonias in the Rio Grande Valley are small, often impoverished communities that were established decades ago for farm workers and laborers from Mexico.
“A lot of them were established decades ago, when farm workers and laborers came from Mexico to work in the fields and needed a place to live.”
At the STBA's Martin Luther King Day meeting, Mario Guerrero said over 9,000 people had been deported from the area.
“Over 9,000 people have been deported just out of our area.”
In September, a federal court in Alabama ruled that warrantless searches of construction sites were illegal, agreeing with the builders' position.
“In September, about seven months after this meeting, a federal court in Alabama actually weighed in on this. It agreed with the builders. The judge ruled that warrantless searches of construction sites were, in fact, illegal.”
In June, Congress passed the Secure America Act, which gave ICE and Border Patrol an additional $70 billion and led to a surge of arrests.
“A few months later, in June, Congress passed the Secure America Act, and Ice and Border Patrol were given an additional 70 billion in funding, leading to a surge of arrests.”
In July, more than 200 people were arrested in the Rio Grande Valley in one day, and an ICE agent killed Lorenzo Salgado Arajo, a framer north of Houston.
“And in July, more than 200 people were arrested in the valley in a single day. In that same month, an Ice agent shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Arajo, a framer five hours north of Houston.”
The STBA's new trade school plans a starting class of 28 students.
“With a planned starting class of 28 students, Mario knows it's a drop in the bucket, but at least it's something.”
A New York Times poll found Texas Latino voters favoring Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico over Republican Ken Paxton by nearly forty points.
“Latino voters favor the state's Democratic candidate for Senate, James Talarico, over his Republican rival, Ken Paxton, by nearly forty points.”
Introduces the Valley builders who began speaking out as ICE raids reached construction sites. It shows these were Trump voters now confused and alarmed.
“It was definitely a cry for help. That's all it was. It was a cry for help.”
Explains the region's border identity and why the surge under Biden left residents frustrated, even where perceptions outran the data.
“had landed in the Rio Grande Valley.”
Shows how Trump's story of inheriting a family business echoed the builders' own American dream, which the raids then threatened.
“I believe that Donald Trump is the epitome of the American dream.”
Follows the framers' craft and the collapse in building as crews disappear, and tests the claim that Americans will take the jobs.
“Americans don't wanna do the work. Flat out.”
Profiles an STBA leader whose success story explains why the raids feel like an attack on a hard-won way of life.
“So I always got that chip on my shoulder, right?”
The STBA takes its complaints to Congress and ICE officials but gets no clear answer on its rights, and a warning that the Valley will not stay red.
“doesn't consider any property to be private property unless it is fully enclosed”
The undocumented framer 'A' gives a counterpoint, saying the builders' wealth rests on immigrant labor and that the shortage lets him raise prices.
“I'm one of the few framers that are left”
The STBA starts its own school and many builders say they will change their votes, while A loses his immigration case and fears being detained again.
“I'm gonna take matters into my own hands”
I'm Peter Baker, I'm chief White House correspondent for the New York Times. I cover the president of the United States, and I've covered every president since 1996. The pressure on an independent press today feels greater than at any time I've seen it in four decades as a journalist. All that pressure, though, is just a reminder of why journalism matters. Our job is to bring home facts, help our readers understand what's happening, regardless of what the consequences may be to us.
And if they punish us, so be it. We will still go out there and report as honestly and aggressively and fairly and truthfully as we can. I mean, look, if the New York Times were not at the White House asking the hard questions, looking for stories behind the stories, trying to understand what's going on, it's possible these questions don't get asked. Independent reporting requires resources. You can support it by subscribing to the New York Times at nytimes.
com.
From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. In tomorrow's election, few regions of the country are expected to swing harder away from President Trump and toward Democrats than the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, where life has been transformed by the president's crackdown on immigration. For the past year, my colleague, daily producer Lindsay Garrison, has been reporting on that shift and the unlikely group leading the charge. It's Monday, November 2nd.
When the raids first started in the Rio Grande Valley in early 2025, people were confused. Sure, some people with criminal records were getting picked up, but so were people who weren't criminals. People who had lived along this stretch of land near the Mexican border for years. So people were scared. Some stopped going to work or going to church. And then ICE agents started showing up at job sites. Videos began to circulate, some showing an ICE agent tapping a worker on the back while he and his crew were in the middle of laying a concrete driveway.
Continuing to work until the moment they were handcuffed, with puzzled looks on their faces. But compared to many places across the country, the raids and the reaction to them seemed to be happening fairly quietly. And then one day, someone spoke out.
What's going on? Rio Grande Valley, it's Mario Guerrero here, and I want A developer to ask you
named Mario Guerrero posted a video sounding the alarm.
Because this is gonna ruin our economy, it's gonna ruin the housing market, the American dream. At that time, This is the answer.
it was the only thing I'd This is who we seen like it.
are, we're the commercial market.
Someone from the construction industry, loudly speaking out about these raids. So I called him. Hey, Mario, it's Lindsay Garrison. Thank you so much for your time talking with me. I'm I'm really grateful. I'm sure you're very busy.
I think busy is an understatement right now. I'm running around like a headless chicken.
Mario owns a construction company and runs the business side of his parents' construction company, plus he owns a brokerage. But he's also the executive director of the South Texas Builders Association, the STBA. It's a group of 159 construction and real estate businesses, mostly across the Rio Grande Valley. So he's got a bird's eye view of things.
Right now, what is happening in the Rio Grande Valley, I mean, it it's scary. We've had multiple builders that have been pouring driveways, and you know, immigration gets there and they just take everybody and they don't leave anyone behind. And it's not just one or two or three builders, it's like more than ten construction companies. I wanna say we're up in the 15 20s where it's it's happening more and more. So it's putting a lot of fear on people.
Mario told me he started noticing more and more raids in the spring It's of last year.
changing in May.
He started talking about it The border patrol privately with other members has gone from being of the STBA.
a to being a drastic change
Like much of the valley, of they were also confused.
now there's a lot of So they started money coming into the border using group text threads communities that to compare notes previously didn't and alert have any.
others if ICE was seen Because of this, at a job site. we we don't have But beyond that, the staffing no one initially knew what to do. to process. These And they felt their U. local leaders The border's always weren't speaking up
been wide open.
enough about it.
Where are our leaders?
So in November, Mario and the board at the STBA called a meeting for anyone in the construction community of the valley to open up about the impact of the raids. And days later, in an area event center normally used for weddings and quinceaneras, with wrought iron chandeliers drooping from its high ceilings, dozens of people from the valley's construction industry shuffled in to share stories.
It was definitely a cry for help. That's all it was. It was a cry for help. I mean, and we're still crying for help.
Business in the valley was hurting, and they were perplexed, wondering if maybe a mistake had been made, and whether they were the ones who made it.
Man, what did we do?
Because many, if not most of them, had voted for President Trump.
What the fuck did we do?
The Rio Grande Valley isn't really a valley at all. It's a mostly flat floodplain that hugs part of the Rio Grande River. Desert willows dot the terrain here, and palm trees rattle in the wind. People here call it the RGV, or just the Valley, and its four counties have some of the highest Hispanic concentrations in the entire country. Most people here slip in and out of Spanish without a second thought. As someone put it to me, it's like coming to another country between two larger ones.
For generations, the valley voted Democrat, but it's more of a purple place than a blue one. It's a deeply Catholic part of the country, where attending church is a weekly rhythm. Most people I've talked to call themselves conservative or moderate. Cross-border commerce and small businesses help fuel the economy here. So does Border Patrol, a huge employer in the valley. This close to the border, immigration is not a slogan or a platform. All of the complexities and intricacies of the issue are layered on top of one another.
It's just a part of life. So it's the kind of place where a reverend of a small church happens to also be a border patrol agent, preaching to his undocumented congregants. A place where a popular restaurant gives breakfast discounts and deals to law enforcement like ice. Even though some of the employees taking their order or cooking their food in the back may not have legal status. It's all tangled up and knotted together. So when there's some big change in immigration policy nationally, it hits the valley first.
And it can often feel like a seismic weather event, changing the topography of a place. And in 2021, a big one came. The largest immigration surge in U. S. history, which peaked during the Biden administration, had landed in the Rio Grande Valley.
We saw it because it was happening here in our backyard. We saw it, we saw it here. We're the front line.
Oh man, I remember even seeing like the Caravans caravans of people.
Thousands of people were making their way to the border.
Daily, we would have hundred buses coming into there and out of there for almost four years.
At one point, 10,000 immigrants a day were crossing into the United States along the southern border.
You would see the border full of immigrants just laying there. Like, oh my god, where are all these undocumented coming to people going to?
People told me it rocked the valley and put a strain on so many here.
The border patrol here were overwhelmed. Like Border Patrol, And everybody here knows border patrol agents. There's so many of them. You can see the stress. Two border patrol You know, I'm thinking agents in the valley the only way killed themselves not to do
in the span of a week. that
All of a sudden, there's more break-ins, there's more robberies. Some business owners told Uh, you know,
me they sensed a rise in crime.
I mean, I saw it as a business owner, One man told I'm seeing that
me he'd opened up his hardware everything is store to find his chain link
getting worse.
fence had been cut into. A wheelbarrow had been stolen, and he assumed who took it.
They're they just die here from some random country and just they need a couple bucks, they need to eat. So it's understandable, not condonable, but it's understandable.
But the frustration went beyond a stolen wheelbarrow. The whole situation inflamed deeply held perceptions of unfairness.
My wife's a nurse. There was occasions where she would say there was illegals in one of the rooms cause they're pregnant and that's gonna have a baby here in the United States.
People told me they felt the new arrivals were getting preferential treatment.
And she's got a guard at the door, and then she's getting all the medicines because the government's paying for it. Yet I have American citizens in the next room that can't afford to have that type of care because she's a citizen.
And cutting the line in front of people who had been trying for months or even years to become a citizen.
because of all the pressure with all the refugees coming over or the legal aliens, whatever you wanna call them, all the people that had submitted their paperwork. They don't have enough personnel to handle all this new processing.
Like an administrator of a local school who told me that a dean of students had a work visa that was about to expire. He submitted the paperwork to renew it on time.
They're like, Sorry, we're so backed up, we haven't gotten to your file.
It wasn't processed in time
It is.
and it expired.
Then you need to go back to Mexico.
His lawyer advised him to return to Mexico Because so that he wasn't in the country illegally it's and jeopardizing his citizenship process.
and so here we are, almost three years later, he still has never gotten his visa to come over.
These accounts were sometimes second and thirdhand, and they often painted an incomplete picture. For example, according to the McAllen Police Department, property crime did rise slightly in 2022, but overall crime was actually down in the city during this period. And that backlog at the border, it predated the surge under Biden. And while undocumented immigrants are guaranteed care in emergency medical situations, so are American citizens. But still, it all added up to a feeling.
So I see that that's not fair, you know? That has nothing to do with them being Mexican or us not wanting them to try to get a better life. That's why our parents came to this country to try to give us a better life, and I understand it, but it's just impossible when you have so many people.
Hey, even heaven has borders, right? Not everybody's gonna make it in.
Over at the STBA during this period, people told me the construction business was humming along.
Well, yeah, we were, we were building just fine.
But that didn't mean they didn't have their own complaints about the influx of people.
Well, that's why I believe a lot of people here locally were voting for Mr. Trump, like, Okay, yeah, we're gonna take all the immigrants out. Well, great, dude, great. You should take them back because the way that they came in was not right.
But there was another reason the valley turned red the last election, after so many years of voting for Democrats. President Trump was a businessman, and a lot of the builders at the STBA were too. So many saw a piece of themselves and their aspirations in his story.
I'll tell you this, I believe that Donald Trump is the epitome of the American dream. His dad started something, right? His dad started something, and then what did he do? He passed it on to his son, and people wanna hate on him for that. Why would you hate on him for that? If his dad built something and now his dad was able to give it to him, that's the American dream.
It feels like in other parts of the country, the American dream is talked about as almost a relic of the past. But in the Rio Grande Valley, it's alive, it's real. So many of these builders I've met at the STBA were sons who took the mantle of their parents' construction company, or they were fathers hoping to pass their fortunes onto their own children. What was shameful about that? That was everything their own families had come here to do.
So when the raids started at the job sites, and when things came crashing down, it was the first time, probably in their lifetimes, that that idea was in danger.
So anyway, the irony here is that we all voted for Trump. We all voted for Trump. We all voted red. We were the guys on the Trump wagon, dude, on the Trump train, like for real.
Because that's what the Mr. Trump and his administration said, that they were gonna come after the murderers and the rapists.
You know, you promise criminals, rapists, murderers, molesters, sure, get them all out.
The worst of the worst. But I mean, right now you're going after everybody, everyone is a criminal.
We didn't know you were talking about these people that I've known and been here for ten years and they're working every day and adding value.
So it just it's it's kinda hard because you're like, dude, like, it doesn't make any sense. I mean, now it's like now you start to wonder, was it the correct choice? If that was the right decision to make at the time, you know?
The raids just kept ramping up. By winter of 2025, more videos swirled around of ICE agents climbing on tops of roofs to question workers.
In this country, I go, we're hiding it. Unde.
Or shouting up at them, telling them to put down their tools and climb down the ladder.
Security cameras captured ice vehicles speeding across subdivisions, chasing men who were sprinting away.
Every day there's a raid.
Every day, oh my Lord, every day.
This year alone, we've been hit nine times. Just right now on my other private chat groups, right now at twelve oh nine, ice is in Laguna Heights subdivision here in Edinburgh. So it's like Jesus Christ, it's every day, every day they're hitting job sites, picking up people.
Many workers were too scared to show up at work, and those who did were taking a big risk.
I mean, I had to, what can you say? Just swallow the the panic and go out and and do the money. That's what we needed to do, and I mean, that's what we did.
Like A, who asked to remain anonymous for his safety? He's a framer and has lived in the valley almost all his life. His parents brought him here from Mexico when he was a small child. When the raids started, a friend warned him.
They gave me careful, they started the raids, and I'm like, No, they did it. No, they did, and he said, they just raided my job site. I'm I'm looking to even be calling you because they chased me down, but they couldn't catch me. And I'm calling you because you're one of my closest friends and I don't want you to get raided. And that's when we we knew things were serious.
He was worried. But A has kids at home who rely on his income,
They able to buy them diapers or
so he didn't feel he had a choice.
there's no other option, you have to do it.
Nationwide, the construction field employs the highest percentage of immigrant labor, nearly 30%, and in Texas, those numbers are even higher. Studies suggest anywhere from 40 to about 50%. Official numbers on the Rio Grande Valley are hard to come by. But if you ask people in the industry, which I have, some wager as many as 80% are undocumented.
I had one guy that was a joke steward. He'd get up and he'd say, I hate those undocumented workers.
It's almost a joke here.
And then you'd get one or two that'd say, Well, hi, what's wrong with us? What's wrong with being an immigrant? Then he'd say, Cause there's too many of us. I'm undocumented too, you're taking my job, you know?
People in the valley's construction industry will also tell you that the trades that have some of the most undocumented workers are the foundation and framing crews. A has worked as a framer for around seven years, and his father has been doing it for more than 25.
When he got here, I mean, those were all the only jobs, because for other jobs you need a social, and only the hard labor jobs are the ones that don't require one. So he got into, I think he was pouring concrete at first, then he saw there was a little bit more money on the construction side, and that's when he started doing construction.
So when A was about to have his first baby and was working at a taco restaurant for $7.25 an hour, he decided he needed something more lucrative like that. And he asked his father to teach him the craft.
I mean, it's it could be overwhelming, cause, uh, you can't stop learning from this. You find something different every single day, you learn something different every single day.
What was that like to have your dad as your boss?
Hard, because, uh, dads usually want the best for their kids. And if something didn't go the right way, he would he would get upset and he would get after me, you know, in a hard way, right? But I mean, thanks to that, we know what we know now.
He started out as an apprentice. Every crew has them. They sweep the floors, clean up,
Took me about a year and a half, two years to learn the basics, just the basics.
just absorb the fundamentals.
About cutting, measuring, the speed square, the 45s.
Then he became what they call half a spoon.
And when you start on the framing, the cuts had to be precise, and your main issue is holding the saw. Cause if you don't hold it right and it kicks back, you could cut your leg, you could cut your arm.
Now he works with his father,
Now I know the majority of it.
who's a master framer, a maestro, as I call them. At the job site where we were talking, his father was framing a large pantry. So will he finish the framing of the pantry closet today, like in in the next couple hours? Is that the goal?
10 minutes.
Or in 10 minutes? No, I stood with A and watched.
Looking at the pantry that's on his building.
Okay, A pulls up the blueprint and shows me what we're looking at.
The refrigerator.
It is.
His father wore a heavy tool belt with tools on both sides of his hips. He would swoop down to the floor, measuring the angles for the cuts, and then marking them with a short pencil. And every time he bent down, his sweat droplets fell onto the slab floor. He was just dripping with sweat. But just as quickly as they would darken the concrete, they would evaporate again in the Texas heat.
The walls are up.
He'd make the cut, then he'd fly up the ladder and reach behind him for his nail gun on his tool belt, which he'd always find without looking. And bolt the board in its place. He was so graceful, it was as if he defied gravity.
That's the second plate.
A builder once told me that there are 9,000 components to building a house. And if you take a trade like framing, it requires math, a lot of geometry, to understand how to cut a stud, how to take the line or not take the line, calculating the correct pitch of a roof. That piece goes above the door. And the only way to become a maestro was by doing it thousands of times in the sun, in the rain, for years.
Just like A's father.
Yeah, that's pretty much it.
Is that it?
Put the two by jacks and that's it.
And sure enough, in just a little over 10 minutes, the pantry was done.
He didn't know that we were timing him. I bet if he knew, he'd be even faster.
Yeah, so when a maestro like this gets detained, who is actually going to replace him?
How do we get rid of, uh, an entire workforce and have no way of replacing it?
You're gonna tell me that we're supposed to get the labor from an American citizen that's never swung a hammer.
And that question wasn't just a theoretical one for A. He told me a while ago his father was detained, and all of a sudden, A became the head of the crew. But he never replaced his father. He just tried to do the work himself, and that was happening all around the valley too. Wives filling in for husbands, sons covering for fathers. It was a complicated reshuffling of a rapidly disappearing workforce. And then it was A's turn.
It was just a common day. So we got to the job site, we got off the equipment, the compressors, uh, the generators, everything. And, uh, I saw like five or six cars just parked, and I didn't think too much about it. And I'm, you know, I don't know what it is, I don't know what's going on.
They're not like marked cars.
No, nothing, they were just regular cars. Soon as we started working, I just saw two Rams in front of me, like full speed coming at you, coming at me, yes, full speed. And when they stopped, they opened the doors, four guys out of each truck, all ice, and, uh, I panicked.
A told me the officials asked for his ID.
I'm like, why do you need to see my ID? They go, Oh, no, we just need to see ID to make sure y'all are legal.
He explained to him he had an NTA, a notice to appear document. It's what the DHS gives immigration court to begin a legal case that a person should be removed from the country.
So I'm doing everything I'm complying with the law.
A told them he complied with the law.
I'm doing everything y'all are asking me to do.
He said he attended all the court hearings.
And I have my final call In fact, today.
the final one was coming up soon, where an immigration judge would decide whether A could stay in the country or not.
So I gave him my ID and he looked at me and he looked at the ICE officer and the ICE officer just, sir, he just nodded no. Uh, so what's going on? The guy's like, Oh, no, you're gonna come with us.
They arrested him.
So, I mean, they put me in handcuffs, and as soon as they got me on the truck, my wife called me. And she's like, What happened? Uh, I'm on my way over there, but she was crying, she was crying really bad.
They took him to Port Isabel Detention Center, where he'd be given a choice.
If you wanna sign the voluntary departure, you'll be in Mexico tomorrow. And I was like, Oh, why am I gonna sign the voluntary departure if I feel this is my country? I have my family, I have kids, what are they gonna do? And he said, I mean, that's not my problem. That's your problem, and that's your parents' problem for bringing you here illegally. I'm like, Oh, okay, all right.
Pouring a foundation and framing are some of the first steps to building a house. Nothing can happen roofing, plumbing, painting, unless those jobs are finished first. So when those crews go missing, it pushes timelines out for subcontractors. I talked to one small builder who told me in a normal year, he'd build around 25 houses. By the end of 2025, he'd only built twelve, and going into 2026, he only had contracts for three. If fewer homes are being built, less materials are needed to build those homes.
So lumber and concrete suppliers would tell me that they were experiencing less sales and more cancellations, and with less orders, some companies I talked to had to start laying off employees to stay afloat. A big concrete company told me that around this time, he laid off more than 100 workers, and a few months later, he filed for bankruptcy. All of this is particularly problematic when the valley and the rest of the country is in the midst of a housing crisis.
Where are we supposed to get the labor from?
It's often said that if you remove immigrants from these jobs, Americans will take them. Americans will fill the void. Even President Trump has argued this, but that wasn't exactly happening.
That's stupid. That is dumb. All of a sudden, everybody's gonna like, wake up and, uh, let me go do framing today, you know, let me go pour concrete. I know nothing about it, but I'm really excited to go do it and work in the 110 degree weather. No, of course they're not gonna come.
But the argument from the perspective of the STBA and even college instructors in the valley who teach construction is the same as the one so familiar to the rest of the country.
It's easy for somebody to say, well, just hire Americans. Well, Americans don't wanna do the work. Flat out.
Americans don't want these jobs.
Like when people are like, Oh, it's cause you guys don't wanna hire. Dude, people are telling you that they'll hire you on the spot. The thing is, United States citizens don't wanna work in construction.
And Mario argues it's not because they're not paid well. He points out that an apprentice starts out making fifteen an hour.
That is not that is more than minimum wage.
That's more than double the state's minimum wage.
So I think to myself, like, no, it's not that it's slave labor pay, it's that the work is hard.
But even if citizens did want these jobs, they're not qualified.
We need plumbers, we need HVAC workers, we need electricians, we need framers, and we don't have any of that in our high schools. At least not here where I come from. Zero cement workers, framers, masonry, drywaller, things. There's zero. That skill's not being taught anywhere.
It would take years of training, like A's, to build a workforce as skilled as the one that was disappearing, and that was a workforce the valley didn't have.
What we need is a blue collar worker. I believe the system has failed to prepare us.
We didn't prepare anybody, we prepared nobody. We made these decisions as a country and prepared ourselves zero. In an industry that is so critical for a society. I mean, come on, this is shelter. This is not, you know, luxuries. This is people having a place to live, and we'd fumble through that like some country that doesn't know shit. I wish we had American workers. Now I would hire them on the spot.
As a matter of fact, they're already working. The the everything that's available in South Texas is and wants to work. They're already there, they're already working, but that's not enough. That's nearly not enough. It's gonna work. We have nobody to replace them.
So now all around the valley,
We can't find a framing crew.
there are quiet job sites everywhere.
The guy that was working on it just never came back.
And with more and more
He never showed up. workers disappearing, it was It does.
starting to feel like a crisis.
We we've called over 35 framers just to find one. This is how unpredictable daily life is. You know, we show up and it's like, Shit, are they gonna show up today? And if they don't show up, well, fuck, hopefully they'll show up tomorrow. And if they don't show up tomorrow, then you're hoping they didn't get picked up, or you don't know.
The STBA felt like the industry was about to go over a cliff. At this point,
if they raid my job site, my business is going down pretty much. I can guarantee you this. The valley's construction economy will not last another year if this continues.
So someone, maybe even one of them, was going to have to do something about it.
We'll be right back.
I'm Deborah Cayman, I'm an investigative reporter for the New York Times. One morning a few months ago, I got an email, and this person said to me, Hey, I have some documents I think you wanna see. So I got on a plane that afternoon, and I met them in person, and I photographed the documents, and we were able to tell a story that moved our reporting forward in a really significant way. When you subscribe to the New York Times, you're getting a whole team of reporters who are willing to jump and go verify information and bring back documents and shine light on things that other people would like to keep hidden.
If you're a subscriber, thank you for being a part of that. For many of the builders of the STBA, what was happening in the Rio Grande Valley was about more than just an empty job site or a failing business. It was about a way of life, a dream they'd inherited. It's the story of their lives. And over the past year, I've gotten to know a lot of them.
Can you, uh, park on the north side of the house? There's a little driveway there.
Like Julio Carranza, he's the vice president of the group and works alongside Mario. He knows A the framer too. A sometimes does work for him.
Come on in, Lindsay, how you doing? Good to see you.
I met him at his roughly 6,500 square foot home he had just built on the perimeter of a golf course. A Cybertruck sits parked outside in one of the driveways.
Yes, well, I I just moved in, I'm moving in, so excuse me.
Julio is charismatic. He treats you like an old friend, his bro. He wears a big smile.
Back, take a seat.
He knows he's come a long way from where he first started. And to always remember that, he's got a picture hanging in his office of him as a pudgy toddler in Mexico.
And I remember still, like, we weren't from Mexico, but we weren't from America either, you know?
He was born in 1985 in McAllen, Texas. But the first five years of his life, he lived in Reynosa, Mexico, just over the border. And every day, his dad would commute across it for his job in the food court at La Plaza Mall They in McAllen.
were born in Mexico, they worked, and then they went to Mexico, so that's what they did. And Julio that's why
told me that's just what people did live in Mexico, work in Texas.
mom was a citizen.
Julio's mom was a citizen, and eventually, his family crossed the border for good.
Bought a house here.
His parents bought a house in Alamo, Texas.
We lived in a tiny home. It was three brothers in one bedroom, in one and a half bath, six people. Imagine that.
What kind of house was that? Can you I think I got say that?
a picture. And that's it. Carport.
It's a little house with beige bricks and a carport. Understated. Julio says his memories there are vivid.
Yeah, a lot of good moments, a lot of violence also. You know, poverty, bro, it was like textbook Hispanic household, you know, your family lives together close by. Barbecue, corridos, beers, gunshots, you know, typical.
Was it fun?
It was fun. It was so fun. So those are the the music we would listen to. We still do. They're called corridos. So you're just jamming out, drinking your beers, smelling the mesquite in the air, right? And you're just hanging out with your sombreros, your caps, and we're just chilling. I remember that, yeah.
Julio told me his dad didn't drink much, nor did he smoke, but he was a workaholic. He eventually got a job at the HEB, a local grocery store. He worked all the time. Money was tight. They relied on food stamps at times.
Always hated having to go school shopping, cause I know I would never get what I wanted.
Julio's mom would get him five shirts, one for each day of school, and no more.
And I get three pants, because you can mix and match. That's it, cause we couldn't afford anything.
But clothes weren't the only way Julio felt different.
So when I came into the school system,
He only spoke Spanish when he started school in the valley, so he said he was in bilingual classes K through kinder, only. 1st and 2nd, and But in 3rd 3rd, when I grade, his get teachers moved him up to his first English only class.
so now you get jumped up to an English class, now you get a different level of students, parents or teachers. One of them, his parents, was an attorney, another one principal, owned a restaurant, you know, stuff like that. Here I come, first generation, they're already 2nd or 3rd. And I remember we were in a culture class and the counselor said, What do your parents do? Well, my dad's this, my dad's that, and I was so nervous.
And I said, Oh, they're gonna fucking laugh at me. I was so self-conscious. Sure enough, I said, My dad works at HEB. Oh my god, everybody started fucking laughing. Yeah, because he worked at a grocery store, he was a cashier. I felt horrible, bro, and embarrassed, right? The teacher said, Don't laugh, guys, not everybody, you know, is a professional and stuff like that. And we moved on. So I always got that chip on my shoulder, right?
I had to fucking make it out.
fighting out of Tuliptown, Mexico, weighing in at 139 and one half pounds, Julio Cesar Chavez.
So back then, Julio Cesar Chavez, one of the greatest boxers in the world, was at his top. And every time there was a boxing match, boxing was huge in our culture. You'd have the whole neighborhood, few neighbors, all in one house, barbecuing, listening, and then pitching in to rent that HBO. And you'd go to the house of the person that had the cable, right? Back then, we would do it, and then we would party. And then and I'm a little kid hustling, being a bartender.
Hey, a beer, and they'd give me a tip. Here's a beer, and they give me a tip. I was hustled like that. That's what I would do.
Julio found lots of ways to hustle.
Okay, let me clean your car, how much? Boom.
He'd clean his uncle's 96 red Corvette. He loved that car. He gave people haircuts. He earned $5 a week picking up husky poop
Always worked.
until he earned enough money to buy his first pair of new Nikes.
And I get the Anthony Hardaways. When I was in 6th grade, they were $100 and and they were, yeah, 90 bucks plus tax, and they were a size too big for me. I want a kid's footlocker, and I got em. Did you feel like triumphant, like when you got the Nike? Oh, yeah.
Julio got married and became a special ed teacher.
What'd you like about it? Kids, poverty, low economic status. I related to them. There's a lot of talent here, a lot.
He loved the work, and the job paid 40,000 a year.
Hell yeah, I made it. I fucking made it.
But one day, a new opportunity came.
My brother convinced me to start working for him.
His brother asked him to join him in selling houses.
And I said, if you supplement $60,000 a year, I'm leaving, I'll show you what I can do.
So Julio took a leap of faith, and in his words, And I scaled he banked it.
34 years old. A millionaire started from the bottom, like
He's now a developer and owns his own mortgage yeah, like company.
these right here, they're ferragamos, what? What do you think?
His closet is full of his financial successes.
Like this shit like this? I mean, you're talking about a $70,000 watch, a $1,500 shirt, and I have a thing for that now because I remember.
He says his banker is one of those kids who laughed at him when he was a child.
He sees my cash in the bank, he sees my wealth account, you know, I feel badass.
He holds nothing against him, but still, he's proud.
I feel good.
The Rio Grande Valley's counties are among the poorest in the nation. So Julio's never far from where he came from. When he drives around the valley, he passes colonias, small, often impoverished communities that sometimes lack basic infrastructure, like paved roads and sewage systems. A lot of them were established decades ago, when farm workers and laborers came from Mexico to work in the fields and needed a place to live. But in pockets of poverty like these, that's where Julio sees possibility.
So for years, he's been creating gated communities and subdivisions.
So this will have a sliding gate so I can go to the golf course. I'm gonna show you. Yes, of course. Of course.
And homes like the one he lives in now.
So I I did all this myself, part of it with her.
Do all your kids have their own bedrooms?
Yes, they have suites.
So the raids weren't just an attack on their livelihoods, they were an attack on them, an attack on everything they'd worked toward, everything their parents and grandparents had worked toward, too. But this generation of builders, they weren't just gonna roll over in silence. So Mario and Julio and the rest of the board at the STBA started to strategize.
Well, we were confused. What the fuck do we do?
They started looking for help.
Who do we talk to? And I said, Dude, you need to make some noise, dude.
They told me they went to local law enforcement and local city leaders, You know, mayors, commissioners, but they were told, Sorry, Well, er, this is a federal issue.
you don't write the laws, but you're our voice and you have access to that shit, right? That's what a true leader does. That's pretty weak, you know? So we decided we need to fight this politically. We need to call our congressman, that's the only way to fucking do this.
The member of Congress who represents Mario's district is Republican Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz.
We called her directly, Yeah,
He actually had her direct contact.
yeah, because my mom and my dad built her house, she was no help.
They talked to other Democratic members of Congress, like Vicente Gonzalez and Henry Cuellar, and candidates for Congress, like Bobby Pulido and James Talarico, too.
and like this morning, I tried to go to
Mario even tried White House officials, like then Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, who had come to talk to a local group of farmers.
They're like, you need to get out, this is a farmers meeting,
But he was quickly kicked out.
and they took me out.
It wasn't about a party. For the board of the STBA, they felt they hired these officials for the job.
I mean, at the end of the day, we need to remind our elected officials that we put them there. We put them there, and they need to understand that just like we put them there, we can take them out.
Builders also started to take action themselves.
Putting a perimeter around our work sites, our They started to put equipment,
up fencing around the job sites.
Lock gates at all times.
Workers were asking for it.
put up the fences in all the job sites every day, make sure they're locked, they're locked with the chain.
And we're about to install high voltage electricity fences. Um, no, I'm kidding, dude, that was that was a joke.
oh, I was like, What?
I'm actually building a house for an ICE agent.
Right now?
Yeah, right now. His project was one of the last projects to get fenced up. He's like, I just saw that you fenced it up, and I was like, Yeah, we had to, but he just nodded. He's just like, Yeah, that's what you need, then that's it.
His project hasn't been raided, right?
His has not. Many builders invested in
I can do it from
security cameras.
my phone, record 24/7, even at night.
They ten foot four by four poles with cameras, solar powered. Look, uh, we saw what happened with that lady up in Minnesota. God forbid, something like that happens, and one of our workers, whatever, one of us, we get into some kind of scuffle, and the fucking they shoot us down here. You know, y'all, we need to put cameras.
Many instructed their crews that if ICE shows up, don't talk to them, but whatever you do, don't run.
That's the key. Do not run away, just go inside the house, the job site, ignore.
That must be such a hard thing to do, like,
It's so tough. I appreciate, I say it to my son, but I I can imagine, like, being in their shoes when if that happens.
but they knew all of this was only a stopgap. It wasn't fixing the problem.
People are really concerned about what our actual rights are.
It is.
They were confused because weren't these job sites private property?
Where do we as landowners stand? We don't know that.
They told me they felt agents were taking advantage of workers who didn't know their rights, but here they were citizens, and they were puzzled about their rights, too.
So it's like, what are we doing? I mean, shit, the racial profiling when you don't have a warrant, they're using the bare minimum to say, Hey, let me go in there, and what's the bare minimum? They're brown and they're working construction.
To some builders in the STBA, it was all starting to feel racist,
I mean, it's racist, like, let's be real, it's racist.
which, for many in the Rio Grande Valley, was almost unbelievable.
Yeah, we have a little shell around us.
Many of them told me that because the valley is mostly Latino,
You're used to not being racially profiled, you're used to not being pot slurs or
they never really had to think much about racism.
Here in the valley, like, racism is not a thing here.
And it wasn't just directed toward undocumented workers. Do you are, are you ever afraid to just walk around, live your normal life? Do you have any fear?
Um, I I mean it, it crossed my mind. That's why I'm like, carrying my my ID with me.
So many builders started carrying around their driver's licenses, their passports.
It's sad to to have that state of mind as a United States citizen to have a fear that potentially you could be questioned. But at the moment, that's the reality that we're facing, especially down here.
Some of them got pulled over themselves.
And I was like, Why, why are you stopping me? You know, I stopped my work truck. I I don't know why he stopped me, but he asked me for papers, and I'm like, you just said it, man. I just came from work, that's it, and he let me off. And it's like, Oh my god, what the hell is this? You know, it pisses me off.
It was around January, and while the entire country was reeling from the ice killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis, the STBA did something different. They held another meeting on Martin Luther King Day.
When I set the date for the meeting, I didn't even know it was Martin Luther King Day.
The day didn't mean much to Mario before, but when the meeting was set, he started to look into it.
When I realized it, I started listening to Martin Luther King's speeches, cause I had never really paid attention to him as a child of what he was talking about. Now, as an adult, I was listening to him and I'm like, man, this resembles what we're going through. It feels it feels very targeted, like our rights are being taken away. I mean, it feels like that, like that's how it feels to our culture.
May we rise and bow our heads, please.
They invited members of Congress.
I wanna thank you, Father God, for every person that's here, God.
And after a quick prayer, the STBA played a video of Martin Luther King.
China, are you gonna rush our United totalitarian country? Maybe I could understand some of these illegal injunctions.
Next to footage of recent ice raids in the valley.
I'm gonna keep this very brief. We as a community are going through some really hard times. Over 9,000 people have been deported just out of our area. We are a peaceful people. We work really hard. Nowhere did you see disruption like you've seen in other areas. We simply do what we do. We fix that concrete slab that didn't get poured, and we move forward.
It is. It is.
Thank you for being here. I appreciate y'all. And, uh, let's talk.
It is.
Monica De La Cruz.
And after the members of Congress introduced themselves,
Good morning to all of y'all. My name is Henry Fry. I'm Congressman District 28.
Julio gets up and asks some questions about their rights.
We wanna know the law clearly.
What can and what can't be done on worksite enforcements? Who is allowed?
And then he sends his own message.
Man, you shit, you got people up in in Minneapolis, all the white people are up in arms. Then you come here to La Raza, we mind our business, we're working. We don't fight. No one's fighting. Imagine if we get up in arms and we go on social media and we rile everybody up. We don't need to do that. We're beyond that. We're a powerful bunch down here. We're quiet, but just don't wake up that tiger, man, because we get crazy and we get down.
Right. Sorry, that's the album I'm with you, but, uh,
But, uh, let's let's start some solutions. So if you guys can give us some feedback, Mr. Cuellar, Ms. De La Cruz, we can start a roundtable discussion. Thank you.
Congresswoman De La Cruz takes a stab at an answer. We're legislators, and By discussing legislative we options, maybe creating a new work visa program.
there's certain pieces of legislation that we are looking at.
And Congressman Cuellar talks about his work on appropriations.
we gotta find some sort of oversight for ice.
And put guardrails on ice.
We'll find out in the next couple hours.
And before the meeting adjourns, another STVA board member makes a final plea.
There's many people, and I have many workers that haven't been able to see their families for many years. They've been here for 10, 20, 30 years, and their parents are dying, their grandparents, and some of them left children behind, and they haven't been able to go see their children. And that's what they want. They just wanna be able to cross across the border, see their relatives, see their families, see this and shit. Ah, it's good, but at the end, that's not what they're looking for.
They just wanna be able to work, and we as builders, we just wanna be able to finish our homes. We wanna be able to move forward. This is the only way of life that we know. This is the only thing we do, and we just wanna be able to continue working. Thank you.
After the meeting, I asked Mario about whether he thought they got a clear answer about their rights.
Oh, no, no, no, I mean, that's the thing. We weren't able to get an answer.
And why don't you think you were able to get a clear answer on that?
Because I don't believe that they know it, and I don't believe that they wanna lie to us. I believe that they understand that it's a very interesting moment in time where we're at right now. And that's very frightening.
But Mario and the board felt they were owed an explanation. So they asked those members of Congress whether they could arrange a meeting in Washington to talk to leaders in the Trump administration, maybe even President Trump himself. And that's exactly what happened. They flew to Washington and walked into the Capitol.
Never. I couldn't believe that I was there. I was like, Wow, like, I couldn't believe it. And I was there with my dad, cause he's part of the board, like he's one of the board members.
And we go in there and it's It's a wild so we show up, out. a bunch of Mexicans show up, and we're like, Wow, man, we can't build this. So we're looking around and everything, and it's and we see how great everything is.
I just stood there and I soaked it in. And, you know, even my dad said, like, not one of us would have ever been here if it wasn't for you. It was really cool. And I just felt like it was game time. It's just game time to me. I was like, all right, bro, like you got your one shot. This is your one opportunity to step the fuck up.
Congressman Cuellar had arranged two days of meetings with other members of Congress,
And it was a full day of meetings, full day of meetings.
including the chairman of the Homeland Security and Agriculture subcommittees.
Like crazy meetings.
We talk to people and we are who we are. We will tell people the truth, we'll tell you what we need, and we told everybody, we're not politicians. We are here asking for help.
Did you at that point feel hopeful
Yes, big time, super, um, patriotic.
to the board? It was a powerful opportunity.
Like, Oh shit, okay, this is the U.S. Like, awesome. If you speak up, you can get things done. Yeah, this is democracy in action. We we're labor guys, like proud moment, for sure. Goosebumps, for sure, yeah.
The board threw out policy ideas
We're knocking on doors.
while walking the halls of Congress.
Yeah, I mean, we were throwing around the idea of, Hey, don't get rid of Maestros, What if you know, those you leave are the guys our maestros that make sure
alone?
use their talents and the asset that we've created over the years as as a society. Let's use them, teach our kids, and like, okay, now we start a bunch of trade schools that are gonna benefit the rest of the United States. And all came from labor hands that believed in the American dream, because in South Texas, the American dream is alive and well. Wouldn't that have been a better idea? That would have been great for everybody.
Where are we gonna get a 25 year experienced framer? You shipped them out.
But as the STBA went to meeting after meeting, they couldn't tell if any of this was gaining traction.
Why is it that we're the best country in the world, but we can't help people? Why? But we can have billionaires like Elon Musk shooting rockets to the sky. Come on, bro.
At the very least, though, they could get some basic answers about their rights. And that's when they met with several ICE officials.
We get into the meeting with Ice,
I called Mario after that meeting.
and we're going at it back and forth. Hey, you guys,
He said one of the first questions they asked them was
hey, you guys are coming into our job sites,
Aren't our job sites private property?
the ice official says, Well, the United States government doesn't consider any property to be private property unless it is fully enclosed. No law enforcement needs to show any warrant, as we said, because there's nothing that is stopping a civilian from walking your job site. So we were like, Okay, okay, okay. I was like, Okay, sir. So if I go to your neighborhood where you live, and I stand on your grass, am I trespassing? He goes, It's not time to be smart.
In September, about seven months after this meeting, a federal court in Alabama actually weighed in on this. It agreed with the builders. The judge ruled that warrantless searches of construction sites were, in fact, illegal.
And that's another thing that the ice officials told
The STBA board moved to another topic. Why are agents arresting people with valid paperwork? One of the officials answered,
if a person with proper documentation that was given to them prior to the Trump administration this administration is not gonna consider any paperwork valid. Not that was given by Biden's administration, Obama's or Bush's, or anyone's prior to Trump.
I'm telling you, that's what he told us, and we were like, What do you mean? So I asked the guy, I was like, So what's the difference between this government and that government? It should be the same government, it should just be a different person that's running, you know, I guess, talking to us through a freaking TV.
at some point, the board told one of the ICE officials, the people you're arresting in the valley, many of whom have this paperwork that's still valid, they're the wrong people.
Why are you not going after the people that the Biden administration came out? You're going after people that have been here for 15 years, 20 years. Like, what, what are you doing? Why is it that you're terrorizing hardworking people? It is a terroristic attack on society. And he just stayed quiet. It's all a lie. It's all a lie. And I told him, I was like, Look, I flew all the way to DC. So that you can hear it from somebody that has no political ties.
I'm not a politician. I'm a businessman. My thing is, I came to tell you as a Trump voter, as somebody that supported Trump, and I voted for him all three times, and I've gotten death threats for admitting that. Because of what I'm doing, I told him, Just so you know, you're gonna fucking lose, you fucking trick. Does what you guys are doing, you're gonna fucking lose, bro. And I can guarantee you the valley will never be red again.
There was dead silence in the
We checked with Congressman Cuellar's office about this meeting, as well as others who were there and were able to confirm Mario's account and the issues discussed. I also asked Ice about the meeting and Mario's account of the answers the officials gave to the STBA, but never received a response.
Soon as we come back from Washington, DC. A client of mine works for Ice. He actually texted me and he goes, Hey, can I call you? And he's like, I don't know what the hell you did in Washington, but we just got strict orders that we need to stop attacking job sites. Well, That's what he told me, is that we need to stop terrorizing job sites.
Mario said the raids did seem to slow down, but the quiet didn't last long. A few months later, in June, Congress passed the Secure America Act, and Ice and Border Patrol were given an additional 70 billion in funding, leading to a surge of arrests. And in July, more than 200 people were arrested in the valley in a single day. In that same month, an Ice agent shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Arajo, a framer five hours north of Houston.
When they killed Lorenzo Salgado in Houston, they killed the American dream.
He wasn't carrying, he wasn't running from the police, he was going to work in the morning. Like a person that believes in the American dream was taught to do. Wake up, get up early, do your job, earn an honest pay, feed your family, put them through school, you know, the American dream, right? And uh, we shot that guy. Yeah,
I could hear builders struggling. What does it mean to build a life in a country that can take it away in an instant? A the Framer was living that question daily. He heard about the killing, too, but in some ways, he was less surprised by what he was seeing. A knew there had always been these invisible lines separating people in the valley, even if people didn't talk about it much before Ice arrived. A had no idea he was undocumented until he was around 13, and a friend invited him on a fishing trip the next county over.
And when my friend's mom went to pick us up, she asked me if I had an ID. And I'm like, why? She's like, because there's a checkpoint just in case they stop us.
Border Patrol operates checkpoints along highways in the Rio Grande Valley.
And I was like, What? I'm sure I have one, so I asked my mom and she said, Oh, no, then you can't go. And I'm like, why? She's like, Cause you were not born here, you were born in Mexico, and I was like, What? And she's like, Yeah, I mean, I hadn't told you because, uh, you wouldn't understand, but you were not born here, so you can't be crossing a checkpoint. So that's the moment I I found out I was, uh, I was born over there.
And what did you think, like, what did you? How did you process that?
And I mean, it was like a heart hit to take, right? But I mean, eventually, we can't change anything.
A had to figure out a future that fit within the boundaries set for him. And when he became a framer, he found others doing the same. He told me that at least in the beginning, no one he worked with had papers.
Never, no, no, people with papers don't usually do this type of work. They don't. But he really felt They like to
his legal status when a couple of years ago he wasn't paid.
And how much money do you think you lost or were paid
eight, eight grand, more or less. Yeah,
just to you or your whole group?
no, just to me, but
I've heard a lot of stories like A's of undocumented workers not being paid, and stories where the workers take revenge. Like break into a house they built and cut the sheetrock or spray paint the walls. But a said he didn't do anything like that.
but I mean, we're tied up, you get me. If we start an argument or conflict with them, we'll lose eventually at the end of the day. Why don't we just le left it like that? Cause, uh, we win some, we lose some. Eventually, they'll get their karma. We'll just leave it to God's hands and he'll take care of it.
When A was in detention, he prayed a lot.
You go to bed starving, your stomach burns because you're hungry. 1st week, two weeks, you lose fifteen, twenty pounds. I mean, it's it's incredible. Yes,
What was the food that they would feed you?
sometimes they would just give us two chickens and a little bit of rice and just water, that's it. Just so you don't die, I'm guessing. It's just to keep you alive.
He told me his kids were confused to see him there.
My s, my son, my only boy, he started becoming really aggressive. When he would come see me, he would just hug me and he wouldn't, he wouldn't want me to put him down. He would just be hugging me and he would be crying and hugging me. And when the officers would be like, Hey, your time's up, it's time to leave, he would start crying. He would start, I mean, pushing himself towards me, pulling me that he didn't wanna leave.
But I mean, being in there and uh, it's, it's, it's a feeling of helplessness. It's humiliating. It's some place I I wouldn't wish my worst enemy to be in.
Many weeks later, he was granted immigration bond. He said a friend loaned him the money to pay for it.
My kids, they were crying, I hugged them, I hugged my wife, too. It was really nice feeling that I knew I was free again.
And the very next day, he was back on the job site.
Very, very next day. Because, uh, I was, uh, late on rent, I was late on my, uh, truck payments, I was late on the light, the water, the phone bills, I was late on everything, every single thing. Yes, so I had to get to work
Since he's been out, he's high in demand. With the worker shortage, he says he gets ten to twelve blueprints a day. And like much of the valley, he's also looking for workers,
trying to recruit people.
workers who are legal or citizens.
Tell them straight up, like, Hey, not being me, but do you have a social? Still, We've had couple trucks pass by and
he thinks he's already seen a few ice vehicles drive by.
I was on the roof, so as soon as I saw them come, I felt scared. Yes, I. A lot of things went through my mind, like, what if they start asking me to get off? what if, uh, they arrest me again? what if, uh, they don't actually take me to Port Isabel and they take me directly to the port of entry and they just kick me out? I mean, a lot of things go through your head, so.
But Julio, he's the owner of the office, so he kicked them out and he locked the entrances. So we feel a little bit more safe with the fence. That was pretty, pretty scary. Yes,
A doesn't really get why so many builders were caught off guard by what's happened since Trump took office.
because, I mean, he did say he was gonna do this, he did say it. And what bothered me a lot, the majority of contractors here in the valley voted for Trump, the majority of them, Julio being one of them.
Do you feel like angry about that? Or like
I don't feel angry, I just feel, uh, somewhat betrayed. Because if it wasn't for the foundation guys, if it wasn't for the framers, if it wasn't for the guys that do the houses, they wouldn't be who they are. They're, and that wealth they have because of the immigrants, because of people like us that frame their homes, that do the hard job with, uh, cheap labor. I mean, they're, they're, they're taking care of their pockets. So I'm guessing they thought they were the economy was gonna be better and they were gonna make more money and this and that.
But I mean, it backfired on them. And now they're going to Washington to talk and to do this and to do that, to speak up, supposedly for the people. But I'm guessing they don't even care about the people, they just care about their pockets. That's what it is.
you really feel that way?
A used his current job as an example of how the raids have affected builders.
just to frame this house, let me give you an exact amount.
He pulls out his phone and does some quick 30,000, math.
900.
The home we were standing in was two 900 square feet. Normally, a would charge four fifty per square foot to frame 30,000 it.
fifty would be.
That's 13,050 for the job.
But right now, the there's no competition and he needed this frame asap. And I told him, Hey, I'm not gonna charge you for fifty, I'm gonna charge you five, eighty.
Now he's charging nearly 4,000 more. For a, it's not personal, it's just supply and demand.
I mean, that's that's who you voted for, and I mean, we don't have any more framers. I'm one of the few framers that are left, and if you want me to do it, that's my price, and if not, you could keep looking for framers.
Did you tell him that that's what you voted for?
Yes, yes, because he said he was gonna go for all the immigrants, he said he was gonna go for all the criminals, and for him, we're all criminals. So you, you knew he was gonna do that. And whenever I tell another contractor the same thing, they stay quiet because they know they messed up.
So you just you just kind of roll your eyes at the kind of builders association, I'm not with them, cause you're not with them.
I'm not with them. Because because of them, a lot of good friends of mine, framers and all that, got deported. I mean, they deported a lot of my my close friends. And I'm, I'm kind of, uh, upset with it. I really am.
But he also hoped it would all be over soon.
And this coming week, I have my final court
His final court date was coming up, where a judge would determine if he had to leave the country. green card or if And he was feeling optimistic about his case.
yes, and with God's will, we're gonna win the case with God's will. So my lawyer said, that's a home run, you're gonna get it. But
are you nervous at all?
I'm nervous. Yes, I'm nervous, but I'm trusting in God. If he put me in this country, it's because of something, not just to get deported. Twenty four, twenty five years later, I know everything's gonna be alright.
A's dreams are big.
I wanna be someone in life, I wanna be a developer as well, I wanna be a a builder, and I can't do anything of that without them granting me my, uh, social security. Cause for credit, for, uh, loans, for bank loans, for everything, you need a social. So I'm trying to get it over with to get my social a step and s start doing these homes.
this hold you back.
Yes, it's haunting me back a lot. And since I was small, I've, I've always wanted to build homes for a living, build them and sell them, just do it like Julio does. That's what I've been wanting to do since ever, I was since I was small, so I'm looking forward to that.
A builder once told me that the valley has role models everywhere, and their last names aren't Smith or Johnson. Their last names are Garcia or Cantu or Carranza, like Julio. I asked Julio about what a said. He said it was complicated. Yes, he cared for the workers, but a was right.
If it wasn't affecting my wallet, I, I really wouldn't make any issue about it, you
He wouldn't be doing any of this if it didn't affect him financially. know, But if
it's not strictly just about my livelihood, and yes, that has something to do with it, that's both, you know?
I asked SDBA board member Ronnie Cavazos about A's assessment that none of the builders would be who they are without immigrant laborers like him.
Um, I don't know why he thinks we don't appreciate that. I I mean, I, I know me and I know my heart. And the words that I've been using are specifically to to stand up for our immigrants.
A son of a framer himself, he said, no one in the valley would be who they are without workers like a.
What I would tell this framer is that, you know, from the chairman of STB, a, I consider you a giant. Yeah,
Many builders at the STB have signaled to me that they're gonna change their vote in the midterm elections this week.
it's changed the way I'm gonna vote this time around. I'm gonna vote with my immigration hat on and, uh, money hat on, right? But they're taking
I like it to be,
action in other ways, too. you know,
I've done everything that I could to look for and search for help. And in result, I just was like, all right, I gotta do this myself. I'm gonna take matters into my own hands and I'm gonna figure out how I can start a school so that we can save our workforce in South Texas.
The STBA is starting a school to teach Americans the trades most affected by the raids. Quarterly. Classes will be quarterly to get workers out into the workforce as soon as possible,
So it'd be like, in one,
and they'll begin, the board hopes, this month.
and I know it's like, some people are like, dude, that's super fast. And I'm like, bro, we don't have time, like, we need to start putting labor out into the workforce. We don't have time, bro.
With a planned starting class of 28 students, Mario knows it's a drop in the bucket, but at least it's something.
So we're just trying to create a pathway to let people know that, hey, yes, these trades are hard. And yes, it's not easy to be out in the sun framing houses. It's not easy to be in a dark restroom laying, you know, shower tile. It's not easy, and nobody said it would be. But you know what, you won't be in debt, you won't be in debt if you decide to drop out, baby, you know what I mean, you won't be in debt, and you'll be your own boss.
We are gonna create some of the best framers, some of the best concrete workers, some of the best carpenters, they're gonna come out of our school. You're gonna see that
In the past couple of weeks, they've been setting up the classroom, organizing tools for students and dragging the shop tables in.
I don't think we're gonna fit that one in there. Well, maybe this one will fit straight in. We have a double door.
Even if Mario knows it's not going to be enough, he'd rather do something than do what Washington's done. Ignore the realities in the valley and destroy a decades-old system of immigrant labor without any attempt to replace it.
It's always gonna be here. We are Mexico. The only difference is is that there's a small, tiny river between
the imaginary line of Mexico and the United States. And we have people in our government that have not been able to set rules to establish a proper way of people coming into this country. And if we are the United States of America, where we give people the opportunity to be something out of nothing, we should honor that and we should protect it and give them the opportunity to work.
So these days, Mario is just as busy as the day I 1st called him, if not more so. You know, that's that's He runs around the valley
well, I'm about to build this one, managing new projects, you know, that's that's attending builders functions,
follow, let's do it, bro, let's set up a badass parlance. political rallies, Talarico, will be there, or what? Yeah, are you going right now? Yeah, I'll see you there. Bye.
voter registration gatherings, shaking hands, taking photos.
How you doing? Good to see you.
I was like, I'm not
um, I wanted to ask you because I'm
What are you getting here?
You wanna go? Come on,
and somehow finds time to swing into his favorite Mexican market to pick up cucumbers and tortillas to have lunch at his mom's.
that's what I'm gonna say.
He's expanding the STBA statewide.
We create jobs, we build homes for young families.
He held another rally of builders over the summer, calling out politicians and watching him. It seemed Julio's premonition about waking a tiger had come true.
where are our elected officials?
Mario's thinking of running for political office one day. Nope, Can you tell me what happened?
I got, I got denied. Uh, it was me against the judge, technically, the prosecutor didn't say a word. He, he even spoke up to defend me, so he just, I don't know the judge, he, he, he said I was just gonna get deported.
The case that was supposed to be a home run, where A was sure he would get his green card, it didn't go his way. His wife was waiting outside the courtroom, eager to hear the news.
she was smiling. She said. We did, did we win? And I told her no, and automatically she started crying. She questioned, Uh, my lawyer, why? Uh? And they, they didn't even know what to say, cause everything was there.
A says they're appealing his case, but that could take years.
The thing is, when people appeal, they lock them up And in the meantime, by the time they appeal.
if A is arrested again by Ice, he fears he will be deported.
That's a possibility. So I'm, uh, I'm gonna try not to get locked up, right? So, well, I'm scared. Uh, I, I feel, uh, I feel worried. I don't know. It's we're good people, we're doing things the right way. We've built houses for state troopers, we've built houses for for a lot of people of the government. And I mean, I don't think that's right. I don't know how they see it, but me personally, I don't think that's that's a fair treatment.
So a can feel the world around him getting even smaller. His oldest daughter has been asking to go to the San Antonio Zoo lately. It's a three-hour drive away,
You drive in and you can touch the animals and they walk up to you and you feed them. And she's been wanting to, she's, she tells me every every weekend.
but he can't take her. It's past the checkpoint.
I explained to her, I told her that I'm not from here, and she said, why? And I told her, I'm like, it's cause I'm not from here, baby, I'm from Mexico, and technically I'm breaking the law. And I tell her, baby, it's cause if I go and they decide they wanna arrest me, they will, and they'll lock me up. And I won't see you again for a couple months, and this time it's gonna be longer, maybe even a year.
Baby, okay, papi, no, then I don't wanna go anymore, then I just wanna have you here with me. Like, okay,
Instead, he keeps going to work every day at a job site, and he knows if Ice comes again. To keep his promise to his daughter, to make sure he can be there for his family this time, for certain, he will run.
The latest polling from the Times, which concluded over the weekend, shows that the Latino vote in Texas is poised for a historically large shift on Tuesday. In the 2024 presidential election, Latino voters in Texas split their votes evenly between President Trump and Kamala Harris, just two years later, the polling found. Latino voters favor the state's Democratic candidate for Senate, James Talarico, over his Republican rival, Ken Paxton, by nearly forty points.
this week on the wire cutter show, you don't need to be afraid of a pressure cooker.
We are in the second generation phase of stovetop pressure cookers. So if you walk away and you leave it over too high of a heat, it's gonna vent itself.
We're talking about one pot meals and all the ways to make them. Find the Wirecutter show on the New York Times app or wherever you like to listen. Here's what else you need to know today.
I am endorsing my Rogers for the United States Senate today. Uh, I don't belong in Abdul's campaign.
In a stunning last-minute snub, Congresswoman Haley Stevens, who lost the Democratic primary race for U.S. Senate in Michigan to Abdul El-Sayed, endorsed El-Sayed's Republican opponent on Sunday. Her endorsement of Mike Rogers followed days of growing tension between Stevens and El-Sayed over their differing approaches to Israel. Democratic leaders reacted to the endorsement with fury. Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer called it quote, a despicable betrayal.
No, I'm gonna talk to you guys, guys, listen, listen, listen,
She didn't notify either one of you of her decision.
Does this change the outcome of the race or no?
listen listen, stop, stop, stop. None of this matters, none of this matters.
But for his part, El Sayed shrugged off the endorsement at a campaign stop.
So I have a a sense that you all are here today because of the decisions of, uh, somebody who's not here right now. Am I right about that? But I'm just gonna tell you, this is a state of 10 million people who deserve a lot better from their government. I'm a lot more focused on the 9 million 999 998 that are not the ones you guys are talking about. Okay,
Today's episode was produced by Lindsay Garrison, with help from Carlos Prieto. It was edited by Michael Benua, with help from Paige Cowett and Patricia Willens. Fact checked by Susan Lee and Andrea Lopez. Cruzado contains music by Mary Lozano, Pat McCusker, Dan Powell, Alicia Baeito, Sophia Lanman and Chelsea Daniel, and was engineered by Chris Wood. Our theme music is by Wunderly. That's it for the Daily. I'm Michael Barro. See you tomorrow. I'm MJ Franklin, and this week on the Book Review Podcast, Sweetsy by Emma Cline.
Hands down, the novel with the most impressive control I've read this year.
someone is losing their mind and they're approaching their death.
Completely moving, elegantly written.
And it's got lost in the prose of it, which sometimes feels like poetry to me.
What does a life add up to? What does it all mean?
Listen to the book review wherever you get your podcasts.