2026-08-08T10:30:31.197Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/08/politics/immigration-enforcement-worksites-industry-lobbying
从建筑业到农业在内的多个行业团体已就特朗普政府持续推进的移民打击行动向其提出担忧，称此举正在破坏唐纳德·特朗普总统的施政议程并削弱经济，这是多名接受CNN采访以及消息接近白宫的团体成员的说法。
行业代表表示，劳动力短缺多年来一直是多个行业面临的难题，但近期突然终止对130万曾合法在美国工作的人群的驱逐保护，以及在全国范围内加强移民执法力度，正让本已严峻的问题进一步恶化。
这些总体上支持特朗普政府其他经济政策的行业团体，已直接向政府部门表达移民相关担忧，涉及国土安全部、劳工部、农业部以及白宫。
据三名熟悉这场持续辩论的消息人士透露，在政府内部，行业担忧与移民执法之间的拉锯已引发关于如何推进其他类型执法（如工作场所执法）的内部分歧。一名接近白宫的消息人士将这种反复拉锯以及游说对决策的持续影响称为“有点混乱”。
陷入两难境地的是国土安全部部长马克韦恩·穆林，他此前已因在移民问题上态度过于温和而遭到总统支持者阵营中部分人士的抨击。
“非法劳动力只会助长非法活动，从长期来看无法推动经济增长。这只是短期解决方案，但会引发长期问题，”穆林上周在全国州长协会会议上表示，他还提及与劳工和行业团体沟通以寻求解决方案。
他在此次会议上还呼吁修改就业签证计划以解决劳动力短缺问题，这番言论引发了有影响力的“让美国再次伟大”阵营的强烈反对。“我受够了马克韦恩·穆林，”极右翼特朗普盟友劳拉·卢默在X平台上写道。
活动结束数小时后，穆林在X平台上发帖称：“永远不会对非法移民给予特赦。我们是一个法治国家。如果你非法身处美国——你将被拘留并驱逐出境。仅此而已。”
但这一事件凸显了特朗普面临的微妙平衡：一方面推进包括针对建筑工人在内的大规模驱逐行动，另一方面又试图兑现降低房价等其他承诺。
“他竞选时承诺增加住房供应，”美国全国住宅建筑商协会主席兼首席执行官吉姆·托宾说道，该协会是美国最大的贸易组织之一。“目前这两件事可能相互抵触，但我们仍在不断阐明我们的立场。”
托宾表示，除了承诺加强移民执法外，特朗普政府并未给出任何其他保证。
当CNN要求置评时，国土安全部发言人在一份声明中表示：“如果有人想来美国工作，他们需要通过合法途径前来。那种认为我们只能允许未经审查的非法外籍人士留在美国才能支持行业发展的说法，完全错误且不负责任。”
白宫发言人劳伦·比斯表示：“美国不乏有才智和双手的劳动者来壮大我们的劳动力队伍”，并补充道“特朗普将继续推动经济增长，为美国工人创造机会，并确保所有行业都拥有成功所需的合法劳动力。”
CNN也联系了劳工部和农业部征求评论。
过去一周，针对持有被称为“临时保护身份”人道主义救济的人群的移民执法力度有所加强，该身份允许受益人合法在美国生活和工作。这是一系列直接影响雇主的最新举措。
“临时保护身份相关行动力度非常大，”全国移民论坛主席兼首席执行官珍妮·默里说道。“这对企业和经济来说着实令人不安。”
例如，海地移民多集中在养老护理和制造业等行业，而面临失去临时保护身份风险的萨尔瓦多移民则更多从事建筑行业。
默里强调，雇主希望与政府合作并遵守其要求，但也无法接受劳动力在毫无预案的情况下一夜之间大幅缩减。
移民强硬派认为应优先考虑美国劳动力——行业团体基本认同这一观点，但附带条件是实现这一目标需要时间——同时认为需要通过工作场所执法加大对雇主的打击力度。
“我还没天真到认为，在未来几周内突袭美国每家工厂和农场并驱逐所有在场人员在政治和后勤上是可行的，”传统基金会（一家保守派智库）高级研究员西蒙·汉金森说道。“但工作场所执法必须是整体战略的一部分，才能取得成功。”
开展工作场所行动可能需要数月甚至数年时间，这类行动通常基于持续的刑事调查。美国移民海关执法局国土安全调查部门通常会先发出对公司移民文件进行审计的意向通知；随后进行审计；若发现问题，则启动刑事调查。
白宫边境事务专员汤姆·霍曼曾公开表示，他期望国土安全调查部门加大执法力度。
“已经明确表示他们会这么做，”他在移民研究中心（一个倡导减少移民的机构）举办的活动上说道。
特朗普曾承诺降低房价并增加住房供应。但一年多来，美国住宅建筑商一直告诉政府官员，他们的移民政策阻碍了这一目标的实现。
托宾表示，住宅建筑业目前存在20万至40万的劳动力缺口。此前数十年对技术行业和技术岗位投资不足，加上年长工人退休后没有年轻美国人填补岗位空缺，导致这一缺口出现。结果就是外国出生的工人填补了这些岗位。
根据美国全国住宅建筑商协会的数据，2024年外国出生工人占建筑劳动力的比例超过四分之一，创历史新高。在某些特定工种中这一比例更高：超过一半的干墙和天花板安装工、抹灰工、屋顶工、油漆工和地板安装工都是移民。
托宾表示，特朗普的移民议程并不出人意料，但这并未阻止建筑商指出其与其他政策目标之间的矛盾。建造并最终出售房屋的成本取决于土地价格、供应链和材料成本，以及是否有足够的劳动力保障工程进度。
“我们对劳动力的挤压越严重，房价就会涨得越高，”托宾说道。
建筑业正面临多起移民执法行动的冲击，包括临时保护身份到期的问题。
“局势一片混乱，”美国建筑商协会主席兼首席执行官迈克尔·贝拉曼告诉CNN。“雇主们遇到这样的情况：员工在这里工作多年，比如二三十年，一直表现出色，雇主对他们很了解，也想公平对待他们，但可选方案却很有限。”
托宾和贝拉曼表示，他们的组织已向白宫、劳工部和国土安全部提出了这一问题。托宾称，全国各地的住宅建筑商在最近一次会议期间还造访了国会山。他们的挫败感很大程度上源于连续数日没有工人到场，因为他们担心自己的工地会成为下一个被突袭的目标。
“我们经常收到会员的反馈，而且在过去几个月里，这些声音似乎越来越大，”托宾说道。
美国总承包商协会行业形象副总裁布莱恩·图梅尔表示，总承包商面临的关键问题之一，是政府对那些获得临时居住和工作许可的人群的处理方式，包括临时保护身份受益人或寻求庇护者。
他说，雇主们会确保员工本周仍处于合法身份状态，但到了下周就会得知他们因政府取消相关权限而失去合法身份。
“所有这些执法行动都发生在这样一个时期：至少有一个行业板块正全力运转，却很难找到劳动力，而且我们也没有合适的渠道来替换现有劳动力，”图梅尔在提及数据中心的需求时说道。
一些共和党人将美国南部边境非法越境人数的大幅下降视为契机，推动立法解决农业面临的劳动力难题——农业一直难以获取常年需要劳动力的行业所需的工作签证。
在7月底致劳工部、国务院和国土安全部部长的一封信中，共和党议员表达了对H-2A农业客工计划的担忧，该计划允许外国国民填补季节性岗位，并敦促采取行动“解决日益严重的处理延误、监管失衡和结构性障碍，这些问题正威胁着该计划对全美农业生产者的有效性”。
签署这封信的包括众议院农业委员会主席、宾夕法尼亚州共和党人G·T·汤普森，他提出的农业法案提议为部分无证农场工人提供临时合法身份途径。
“完善H-2A计划是关键一环，也是让更广泛的执法行动取得成效的必要条件，”众议院农业委员会一名助手告诉CNN。“我们不能一直在保护法律和保障粮食安全之间反复权衡。”
“我们不希望农业成为众矢之的。而农业目前正处于这种境地，因为他们没有合法的替代方案来填补劳动力缺口，”这名助手说道。
不过，该法案遭到了共和党内部移民强硬派的反对，包括众议院自由核心小组。
但特朗普此前已承认农业行业面临的挑战，政府也尝试做出一些努力，将H-2A签证计划扩大到乳制品行业等无法获取该签证的领域。
“乳制品行业最特别的一点在于，奶牛一年365天都需要挤奶，而且每天要分多个班次……如果工人消失了，奶牛还是得挤奶。你必须能够运输牛奶，这涉及动物福利和经济问题，”全国牛奶生产者联合会政府和监管事务副总裁特雷·福赛思说道。
“这会影响乳制品的供应，乳制品的成本会贯穿整个供应链，最终传导给消费者，”福赛思说道。
CNN的雷切尔·西格尔为本报道贡献了内容。
‘It’s been chaotic’: Trump’s immigration crackdown prompts worries from industry groups
2026-08-08T10:30:31.197Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/08/politics/immigration-enforcement-worksites-industry-lobbying
Industry groups ranging from construction to agriculture are raising concerns with the Trump administration over its ongoing immigration crackdown, arguing it is undercutting President Donald Trump’s agenda and weakening the economy, according to multiple groups who spoke with CNN and sources close to the White House.
Worker shortages have been a years-long problem for multiple industries, but the recent abrupt push to end deportation protections for 1.3 million people who had been legally working in the US and the aggressive immigration enforcement push nationwide are exacerbating an already challenging issue, industry representatives say.
Those industry groups — which are generally supportive of other parts of Trump’s economic agenda — are taking their immigration concerns directly to the administration, including the departments of Homeland Security, Labor, and Agriculture, as well as the White House.
Within the administration, the tug between industry concerns and immigration enforcement has prompted internal disagreements over how to pursue other types of enforcement, like at worksites, according to three sources familiar with the ongoing debate. One source close to the White House called the back and forth and consistent influence of lobbying on decisions “a bit manic.”
Caught in the middle is Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who is already under fire from some corners of the president’s base for appearing too soft on immigration.
“A workforce that’s an illegal workforce only grows illegal activity. It doesn’t grow the economy in the long term. It’s a short-term solution, but it’s going to be long term problems,” Mullin said at the National Governors Association meeting last week, citing conversations with labor and industry groups to find solutions.
His remarks at the gathering, where he also called for changes to employment visa programs to address worker shortages, sparked fierce pushback from influential MAGA voices. “I am so fed up with Markwayne Mullin,” far-right Trump ally Laura Loomer wrote on X.
Hours after the event, Mullin posted on X: “NO amnesty for illegal aliens. Ever. We are a nation of laws. If you are illegally present in the United States of America—you will be detained and deported. Period.”
But the episode underscored the delicate balance for Trump of pressing ahead with mass deportations — including, for example, construction workers — while trying to fulfill other promises like lowering housing prices.
“He ran on creating more housing supply,” said Jim Tobin, president and CEO of the National Association of Home Builders, one of the country’s largest trade organizations. “These two things might be working against each other at the moment. But we continue to make our case.”
Trump officials haven’t offered any assurances in return, Tobin said, other than a commitment to immigration enforcement.
Asked by CNN to respond, a Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement: “If people want to come to our country to work, they need to do that by coming here the legal way. The assertion that the only way we can support industries is by allowing unvetted illegal aliens and foreigners to remain in the country is grossly false and lazy.”
White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said, “There is no shortage of American minds and hands to grow our labor force,” adding that “Trump will continue growing our economy, creating opportunity for American workers, and ensuring all sectors have the legal workforce they need to be successful.”
CNN also reached out to the departments of Labor and Agriculture for comment.
Over the last week, immigration enforcement has ramped up against people who had a form of humanitarian relief known as Temporary Protected Status, which allows beneficiaries to legally live and work in the United States, marking the latest in a string of moves that directly impact employers.
“The TPS push has been really big,” said Jennie Murray, president and CEO of the National Immigration Forum. “That’s really unsettling for business and the economy.”
Haitians, for example, tend to be concentrated in industries such as elder care and manufacturing, while Salvadorans at risk of losing TPS are more likely to work in construction.
Murray stressed that employers want to work with the administration and comply with its demands but also can’t have their workforce decimated overnight without a plan.
Immigration hardliners argue that the American workforce should be prioritized — which industry groups largely echo, with the caveat it takes time to build toward that — and that there needs to be a larger crackdown on employers through worksite enforcement.
“I’m not naïve enough to believe that it would be politically and logistically possible to raid every factory and farm in the United States in the next few weeks and deport everyone that’s there,” said Simon Hankinson, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. “But worksite enforcement has to be part of the overall strategy for it to be successful.”
It can take months, if not years, to prepare for a worksite operation, which is often based on an ongoing criminal investigation. ICE Homeland Security Investigations will generally serve notice of intent to audit a company’s immigration paperwork; perform that audit; and, if issues arise, kick off a criminal investigation.
White House border czar Tom Homan has publicly said he expects HSI to do more of it.
“It’s been made clear they’re going to do this,” he said at an event hosted by the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for reduced immigration.
Trump pledged to bring down home prices and create more housing. But for more than a year, the nation’s homebuilders have told administration officials that their immigration policies keep that from happening.
The residential construction industry is short between 200,000 and 400,000 workers, Tobin said. That comes after decades of underinvestment in skilled trades and technical jobs, all while older workers weren’t backfilled by younger Americans. The result: foreign-born workers fill the gaps.
Foreign-born workers made up more than a quarter of the construction workforce in 2024, a record high, according to NAHB data. The share is even higher among certain trades: more than half of drywall and ceiling installers, plasterers, roofers, painters and flooring installers are immigrants.
Trump’s immigration agenda wasn’t a surprise, Tobin said. But that hasn’t stopped builders from pointing out tensions with other policy goals. The cost of building, and ultimately selling, a home depends on land prices, supply chains and materials costs — and having enough labor to keep the job moving.
“The more we squeeze labor, the more we’re going to increase home prices,” Tobin said.
The construction industry is grappling with multiple immigration enforcement actions, including the expiration of TPS.
“It’s been chaotic,” Associated Builders and Contractors president and CEO Michael Bellaman told CNN. “When employers have people who have been here a number of years, like a couple decades, and they’ve been productive, they know them well and want to do right by them, but options are limited.”
Tobin and Bellaman said their organizations have raised the issue with the White House, and at Labor and DHS. Homebuilders from across the country also visited Capitol Hill during a recent conference, also visited Capitol Hill during a recent conference, Tobin said. Much of their frustration stems from going days without crews showing up, since they fear their sites will be raided next.
“We hear from our members routinely, and it seems like over the last couple of months, those voices have become louder,” Tobin said.
One of the key issues for general contractors is the administration’s approach to people who have temporary permissions to live and work in the US, including those who are beneficiaries of TPS or seeking asylum, according to Brian Turmail, vice president of Association & Industry Image at Associated General Contractors of America.
Employers will ensure that their workforce is in status one week and then, the next week, learn that they lost their permissions because they were stripped by the administration, he said.
“All of these enforcement activities are happening at a time where there’s at least one segment of the industry going full gas and it’s hard to find labor and we don’t have a good pipeline to replace the labor that we currently have,” Turmail said, citing the demand for data centers.
Some Republicans viewed the dramatic drop in unlawful crossings at the US southern border as an opportunity to introduce legislation solving for the workforce challenges faced by agriculture, which has struggled to get access to worker visas for sectors that need labor year around.
In a late July letter to the secretaries of Labor, State, and Homeland Security, GOP lawmakers raised concerns regarding the H-2A agricultural guest worker program, which allows foreign nationals to fill seasonal jobs, and urged action to “address growing processing delays, regulatory imbalances, and structural barriers that are threatening the program’s effectiveness for agricultural producers across the United States.”
Among the signers was House Committee on Agriculture Chairman G.T. Thompson, a Pennsylvania Republican, who introduced a farm bill that proposes a path to temporary legal status for some undocumented farmworkers.
“Fixing the H-2A program is the missing piece and necessary for broader enforcement to be effective,” a House agriculture committee aide told CNN. “We can’t be constantly balancing protecting our laws and protecting our food security.”
“We don’t want there to be a bullseye on agriculture’s back. That’s the position ag is in right now because they don’t have a legal alternative to step in and fill in the void,” the aide said.
The bill, however, sparked backlash from immigration hawks in the GOP, including the House Freedom Caucus.
But Trump has previously acknowledged the challenges in the agriculture industry and the administration has tried to make some inroads to extend the program to sectors who have been unable to access H-2A visas, like dairy.
“The biggest thing with dairy and what’s unique with dairy is cows have to be milked 365 days a year and multiple shifts during the day… If workers were to disappear, those cows still need to be milked. You have to be able to move the milk. There are animal concerns, there are economic concerns,” Trey Forsyth, vice president of government and regulatory affairs at the National Milk Producers Federation.
“It affects access to dairy products, and cost of dairy products flows all the way through the supply chain to consumers” Forysth said.
CNN’s Rachel Siegel contributed to this report.