Deport-o-Mania 2: Houston's Rebuilding Labor Shortage

Is Donald Trump's America so hateful of immigrants that it'd rather slow Houston's reconstruction significantly?

Being human after all, we have certain cravings that are personally destructive: nicotine cravings, sugar cravings, and so on. For several members of the American Trump administration--and those who voted for this affront to humanity--they have a different sort of craving that is rather worse in being societally destructive. That's right, their one true addiction is deporting people who are "different" from them culturally, ethnically or religiously. They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists, etc.

In an earlier post I discussed the potential consequences of ramping up deportations from the US just as Houston lies devastated by Hurricane Harvey. Being a Trump voter-rich state, Texas has unfortunately been at the forefront of sending those from other countries packing:

Under President Trump, authorities in Texas have been bearing down on illegal immigrants. Until a judge blocked the measure last week, they threatened to enact a new state law that would outlaw sanctuary cities. Texas also has been leading a group of 10 states demanding that Trump end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which granted reprieves from deportation to nearly 800,000 undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as minors.

The last time a disaster of this magnitude hit the Gulf of Mexico area, then-President George W. Bush silently rolled back strict deportation to help reconstruct New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Indeed, Hurricane Harvey may have made immigrants more vulnerable by literally bringing them out in the open:

It is a harsher landscape for those in the country illegally than it was 12 years ago, when the Gulf Coast faced the similar-size task of cleaning up from Hurricane Katrina. Eight days after that storm made landfall, President George W. Bush bowed to pressure from construction firms and relaxed worker ID rules. By some estimates, that allowed more than a quarter of all government-paid recovery jobs to go to illegal immigrants [my emphasis]...

But 10 days after Harvey struck Texas with record-setting rains and caused unprecedented flooding, the Trump administration has made no similar proclamation. Worse, immigrant rights groups say, federal authorities have sent conflicting signals about whether they might start simply detaining and deporting those flushed out into the open by the storm.

Builders, unlike certain elected officials, know what really needs to be accomplished in order to meet the labor requirements in rebuilding Houston. Most certainly it isn't ramping up deportations:

Leaders in the construction industry have begun sounding alarms that there will not be enough American-born workers to rebuild as quickly as needed. “If they would relax the rules, honestly, that would be great, we could use it,” said Jeffrey Nielsen, executive vice president of the Houston Contractors Association, whose members include the city’s largest firms that build roads, bridges and other public works.

Nielsen said that even before Harvey hit, almost every member of the association was grappling with a shortage of workers. With a crushing list of jobs now growing by the day, thousands need to be hired — and fast. Nielsen said he and other construction industry officials were told at a weekend briefing that roughly 30 percent of all roads in and around Houston will remain impassable without some construction work.

The city's reliance on undocumented workers is substantial if left unsaid. As the saying goes, there are literally few gringos (white natives) willing to do the work:

“The truth is, there are not a lot of people jumping up and down to do civil construction work in Texas. It’s hot, and these jobs are pouring concrete or, worse, hot asphalt,” Nielsen said. “That’s the reality of it, and we need more people than ever.”

There are plenty in and around Houston who might consider taking on the work, which can pay $20 an hour or more, if ID requirements were relaxed, construction industry officials say.

The Houston metropolitan area has the third-largest illegal immigrant population in the country, about 575,000 people, according to a Pew Research Center report this year. Those workers already make up roughly a quarter of all construction laborers citywide, according to the study. Some estimate it could be closer to half [my emphasis].

But as the federal government this week is expected to begin signing massive contracts for debris removal, roofing work and other emergency efforts, none of Houston’s unauthorized immigrant population could pass worker verification guidelines required of federal contractors.

Trump-style bigotry certainly raises several ethical issues. However, as this storm illustrates, racism doesn't make much economic sense either while you're trying to rebuild an American megacity. Somehow, I doubt there are enough Breitbart readers out there [representative headline: Satanic illegals kill US teen!] willing to do the hard work that needs to be done.