Mario Guerrero cast his vote for Donald Trump three times. Now, he’s watching federal agents arrive at his South Texas construction sites and take away his workers.
“Deporting the criminals is a great policy,” Guerrero told The New York Times, in a report by Jeremy Raff, Ivan Narez Hurtado, and Ben Laffin.
What he didn’t anticipate was agents showing up without warrants and removing employees who had proper documentation.
ICE sweeps have repeatedly targeted construction sites across the Rio Grande Valley in recent months, with one contractor, Marco Santivanes, saying his company has been raided between 10 and 15 times across various subdivisions.
The construction industry in the region relies heavily on immigrant labor, including workers who are undocumented. As a result, work across the Valley has slowed dramatically.
Foundations remain poured and ready, Guerrero said, but there are no crews left to continue building.
A local building supply company, led by Eliud Cavazos, filed for bankruptcy in December after residential sales fell by about 60%, a loss Cavazos estimated at roughly $5.3 million.
Cavazos said the company had never laid off a single employee in 40 years until the raids forced them to do so.
Retail businesses are also feeling the strain, with owner Jeanette Hernandez saying fear is keeping customers away and that the lost sales “killed us this year.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to the Times’ request for comment, though a prior statement from the agency described the raids as a way to protect American workers. Guerrero said he has supported Trump in every election the president has run in.
“We just never thought that this would come and affect us in the construction industry, but most importantly affect our economy here in South Texas,” he said. “Construction is one of the main pillars to the economy here. Everybody’s hurting.”
For many in the region, the situation has taken on a stark “leopards ate my face” reality—voters who backed Trump’s aggressive immigration policies now watching those same policies dismantle their businesses and local economy in real time.
Mario Guerrero, ABIC member and CEO of the South Texas Builders Association, shares what he's seeing on the ground in South Texas and asks President Trump to fix the broken immigration enforcement and policies.
— American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC) (@AmericanBIC) February 20, 2026
ABIC business leaders have been calling for work permits for… pic.twitter.com/p7iglCdIsr
Watch above via The New York Times and watch the full report here.
