The U.S. construction industry is heavily dependent on immigrant labor as well as undocumented workers who pay tens of billions of dollars in federal, state, local and payroll taxes, in addition to mortgage payments and rent. The statistics are especially relevant in light of the pledge by U.S.
president-elect Donald Trump to use the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to begin the largest deportation in American history, expelling millions of undocumented workers and ending temporary protected status for immigrants who can’t safely return home. The reports, based on U.S. Census Data and other surveys, show nationwide there are five million undocumented working immigrants, including nearly 1.6 million in the construction industry. The Washington, D.C.-based Center for American Progress, a public policy research and advocacy organization, determined construction laborers are the largest share of undocumented workers at 445,800; carpenters are second at 225,600; painters and paperhangers are third at 167,300; and roofers are fourth at 75,600. The figures show one in five undocumented workers are employed in a construction-related sector and more than one in 10 construction workers are undocumented – double the rate of workers as a whole. “As the country looks to the future and charts a course for economic recovery, it is also important to recognize the outsize contributions to the economy provided by construction – and, in particular, residential construction,” the report states. “Dollars spent in residential construction have some of the highest rates of return for U.S. gross domestic product and boost tax revenue.” Indeed, each year undocumented workers and their households pay $12.9 billion in federal tax contributions and $7.7 billion in state and local taxes. Their annual contribution in payroll taxes is $4.4 billion. Meanwhile, undocumented immigrants working in the construction sector own 393,500 homes, paying $3.6 billion in mortgage payments and $11 billion in rent