ICE increases arrests at New Mexico home construction sites, putting workers on edge

New Mexico homebuilders are reporting a sharp increase of federal immigration raids at home construction sites across Albuquerque and Santa Fe in recent weeks, resulting in arrests and project delays across the industry during a statewide housing shortage.

Miles Dylan Conway, CEO of the New Mexico Home Builders Association, told Source NM that he’s received approximately 20 calls or texts from developers in the last week reporting that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have descended on home construction sites, often in unmarked SUVs, and have arrested multiple workers at a time.

“The level of activity I’ve had on my phone, the calls from members who are sometimes calling on behalf of their subcontractors, are telling me that the pace and intensity of the immigration enforcement is significantly escalated,” he said.

ICE officials did not respond to Source NM’s emailed request for comment Tuesday about whether the agency is stepping up its activity at home construction sites and how many people it has detained.

But Source NM’s interviews with home developers, immigration advocacy groups and homebuilder organizations suggest at least five such operations netting more than a dozen arrests have occurred at construction sites over the last month. Social media video has also shown ICE agents leading handcuffed workers away from partially built homes in Santa Fe and Albuquerque in recent weeks. 

The raids have occurred at large, multi-family developments as well as at least one small project site in a low-income Albuquerque neighborhood.

On Tuesday morning, ICE agents arrived in Albuquerque’s San Jose neighborhood as workers were pouring concrete for driveways on two nearly complete, single-family Habitat for Humanity homes, Bill Bidal, CEO of the Greater Albuquerque Habitat for Humanity, told Source NM on Wednesday. 

“Out of the blue, the federal authorities showed up,” Bidal, who said he arrived at the site shortly after workers fled, relayed. “We’ve heard rumors all over town for the last couple weeks about activity, but to have it hit home like this was very, very sudden.”

ICE didn’t detain any Habitat for Humanity contractors, Bidal said, and the two low-income families the homes are built for will likely be able to move in after Thanksgiving. But he said he remains “in total shock.”

Sales employees from Twilight Homes, which is developing several large subdivisions in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, told Source NM on Wednesday that ICE targeted their subcontractors in recent weeks and those of other developers at adjacent sites. 

Pauline Hansen, a sales counselor for Twilight Homes in Mesa Del Sol, said ICE agents have been out “several times” in the last few weeks to hers and other companies’ sites in the subdivision south of Albuquerque. ICE detained four subcontractors doing concrete work for Twilight Homes several weeks ago, she said, and she witnessed an additional raid last week for another company during which ICE arrested an additional four workers on a different development. 

“They’re going everywhere, apparently,” she said. “It’s quite disturbing.”

Fear of ICE arrests has prompted workers not to show up to job sites, even in locations that ICE hasn’t targeted, Conway said. 

“A lot of projects this week are not operating,” he said. “It’s oftentimes even folks with documentation — visas and work permits — are not coming to work because the potential for them to get swept up in one of these actions is very real.”

Johanna Gilligan, the CEO of nonprofit developer Homewise, told Source NM on Wednesday that workers on Homewise projects, particularly those contracted for stucco work, have shown up at low rates over the last month or so. She said her organization is anticipating at least weeks of delays in projects being completed.

“It has the potential to have a knock-on effect, just out of people taking an abundance of precaution,” she said about workers afraid to show up to job sites. “So we are definitely concerned about how this could be exacerbating what’s already a hard process of building homes.”

The National Association of Home Builders estimates that the industry relies on a workforce that is approximately 30% foreign-born. In a state that lacks approximately 58,000 affordable housing units, Conway said he is hoping homebuilders will prevail upon President Donald Trump’s administration to stop the crackdown. 

The administration has revoked millions of immigrants’ work permits in the last two years, including in the construction industries. But Trump also said he was open to making a deal on work permits in certain industries in an interview shortly after the midterm elections last week in which Democrats reclaimed control over both chambers of Congress. 

Conway said he hopes New Mexico homebuilders will speak up more in the coming days to pressure Trump to make a deal. 

“When I get that many calls and texts, there just seems to be an overwhelming energy to try and find a strategy forward,” he said. “We just really need a strategy forward that’s different than what’s happening now.”