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PHARR — Leaders within the construction industry in South Texas delivered a clear message to lawmakers: Stop the mass deportation of workers or risk losing in November.
During a gathering Wednesday hosted by the South Texas Builders Association and the American Business Immigration Coalition Action, industry leaders discussed possible solutions for immigrant workers. Lawmakers who don’t engage with their concerns or don’t support worker protections, the group warned, will lose their races in the November midterm elections.
The South Texas Builders Association had been for months raising the alarm on how immigration enforcement by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had scared immigrant workers from showing up to work sites, causing a labor shortage and a delay in construction projects.
After the death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a construction worker in Houston who was fatally shot by an ICE officer earlier this month, ICE’s targeting of immigrant laborers has once again come into focus, and now, the builders association is demanding worker protections, such as permits that would allow immigrants to work legally in the country.
“I want to send a clear warning to every political leader: If you don’t stop the worksite raids, the mass deportations, if you don’t pass the work permits for long-term, law-abiding immigrants, or citizens, or our Dreamers, you will lose,” said Massey Villarreal, CEO and president of Precision Task Group, a business solutions firm based in Houston.
Villarreal, a Republican, serves as co-chairman of the Comité de 100, a bipartisan group of Latino business leaders who advocate for immigration policies that enable border security alongside a pathway for legal status for workers.
He said that Latinos in Texas should take it personally when ICE targets people like Salgado Araujo because he said it’s an attack on the community.
“I won’t tolerate it, even in our own party,” he said.
Ronnie Cavazos, chairman of the South Texas Builders Association, said his own father was an immigrant and a hard worker. He imagined that Salgado Araujo, who was killed on his way to work, was similar and questioned why the community had supported a presidential administration that would shoot and kill a worker like him.
“Let’s be real, we voted for it,” Cavazos said. “So whose fault was it?”
He would take the blame, but he and the organization are paying attention now, he said, adding that the only way to change things is to vote.
“When I go to that ballot box in November, Lorenzo’s name is going to be in my mind,” Cavazos said.
The three congressional races in South Texas are among the most competitive in the state. Two of the incumbents — U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez, Democrats from Laredo and McAllen, respectively — attended Wednesday’s gathering and reiterated their support for limiting ICE operations for the deportation of violent criminals and assured they supported work permits for immigrant laborers.
U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, a Republican from Edinburg, did not attend Wednesday’s meeting, though she has met with the builders association in the past. Following talks with the group, De La Cruz said she would favor a legal status for construction workers.
She has also worked behind the scenes to secure the release of people from ICE custody including high school mariachi students and a nun who was detained on her way to Mass last month.
“As I have repeatedly said, our immigration enforcement should target violent criminals,” De La Cruz said in a social post when the nun, Sister Leticia Ugboaja, was detained.
However, De La Cruz has faced criticism from immigrant activist groups for voting for President Donald Trump’s signature funding bill, the One, Big, Beautiful Bill, which allocated more funding for ICE’s immigration crackdown.
De La Cruz is in a closely watched congressional race against Tejano star Bobby Pulido who is hoping to flip the seat back to Democrats in November.
Pulido, whose delayed flight kept him away from Wednesday’s gathering, spoke to the group in a video message.
“I do believe that we want common-sense immigration reform that doesn’t hurt businesses and doesn’t separate families and have people living in fear,” Pulido said. “I’m with you all, and you all have a friend.”
Andy Garza, a sales consultant for a concrete company based in Mission, said he was disappointed the meeting became political after it was advertised as an open discussion that put politics aside.
Garza, who voted for Trump 2024, said if Democrats had secured the border to begin with, ICE raids wouldn’t be happening now.
Because of culture war issues, Garza said he would never vote for a Democrat again. However, he said immigrants are needed for construction and agriculture work.
“I do believe there should be changes,” he said. “Leave the people that are working, are construction workers, leave them alone. We need them.”
Reporting in the Rio Grande Valley is supported in part by the Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas, Inc.
