By BEX Staff for AZBEX
In an Aug. 8 opinion column in Bisnow entitled “The Construction Industry Needs Undocumented Workers. So Why Is Nothing Being Done To Help Them?” freelance writer Patrick Sisson argues that undocumented labor is vital to addressing the U.S. construction industry’s chronic and ongoing labor shortage and that much more needs to be done to provide those workers with opportunities to work legally and safely.
We have decided to provide a summary of Sisson’s piece in today’s issue because, while it is a matter of increasing importance to the industry, it is also rarely reported or publicly discussed at length. We strongly recommend readers take the time to read Sisson’s entire column in detail.
Sisson begins by pointing out that the U.S. construction labor pool has not kept pace with demand for decades, citing a lack of vocational education programs, a social shift away from work in the skilled trades, early retirement and other causes. The lack of Americans entering the construction workforce has put pressure on immigrants to make up for the shortage.
He writes, “Undocumented workers are an increasingly vital part of the construction workforce. But it is becoming more difficult for this part of the labor pool to grow, due to a lack of enforcement of worker protections, crackdowns on illegal immigration and an inability to reform immigration laws or expand visa programs. These workers now have little legal recourse, less power and more potential for exploitation.
“This comes at a time when both a significant nationwide housing shortage and a massive investment in infrastructure require expanding the workforce.” He adds that “legislation recently passed in Florida and proposed in other states would make it more difficult to hire undocumented workers.”
Undocumented workers are much more likely to be exploited and subjected to both unsafe working conditions and job site harassment, according to Sisson’s research.
Sisson notes that several industry groups, including Associated Builders and Contractors, have lobbied for years in support of efforts to bring undocumented workers into the legal workforce and that improving the process would both add to worker rolls and lessen risks to immigrants who chose to work in the industry.
The column argues that much of the policy effort since the last major federal immigration workforce reform was implemented in 1992 has been focused on crackdowns, including during the Trump administration, and that the Biden administration has maintained many of those efforts while simultaneously working to streamline legal immigration processing.
One difficulty facing immigrants is the general lack of education they possess. Sisson reports that fewer than 10,000 “green cards” are issued annually to people with education levels lower than bachelor’s degrees and that obtaining seasonal visas is exceptionally challenging. The difficulty in obtaining seasonal visas also pits agriculture against construction, and he cites experts who have found that adding more visas to the available pool would undoubtedly increase the number of construction workers.
The column also cites a statistical analysis by the Bush Institute-Southern Methodist University Economic Growth Initiative that found as cities’ foreign-born populations increase, construction costs decrease.
In addition to merely adding more workers to the pool, providing work authorizations to currently undocumented immigrants would also add to the pool’s depth, Sisson argues. He cites advocates who report a lack of work authorizations means most undocumented laborers are excluded from training and apprenticeships, which prevents them from adding to the skillsets they can bring to the industry.
In discussing Associated General Contractors of America’s process reform efforts, Sisson quotes the group’s VP of Public Affairs Brian Turmail, who claims the current system that tasks employers with verifying immigration status places an undue and unfair burden on companies.
AGC’s recommendation is for a “grand bargain” of immigration and labor reform that increases the number of construction worker visas, increases training opportunities for American workers, increases border security and increases security for temporary workers.
No one referenced in Sisson’s column expressed any hope for significant reforms in the immediate future, but most, if not all, said that unless and until such reforms are enacted, worker exploitation and risk exposure will continue, as will the now decades-long need to add more skilled workers to the construction population.