How Trump's Immigration Crackdown Could Worsen The CA Housing Crisis

CALIFORNIA — President Donald Trump’s focus on deportations could worsen the California housing crisis, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, as day laborers are some of those most potentially vulnerable to the immigration crackdown.

Day laborers typically wait for jobs in highly visible areas such as street corners and parking lots, the Chronicle reported, adding almost 40 percent of California’s construction workforce are immigrants, per a 2024 Home Builders Institute market report.

“If there is a significant decrease in the number of day laborers, labor shortages will worsen, projects will be further delayed, and the cost of building will rise,” Nik Theodore, a professor of urban planning and policy at the University of Illinois-Chicago, told the newspaper.

U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement officers in January arrested at least 78 people in Kern County in areas where day laborers and farm workers gather, according to the Chronicle.

Read more from the Chronicle.