3-Time Trump Voter Complains ICE ‘Taking All Our Workers’ — We ‘Never Thought This Would Affect Us’

A business owner named Mario Guerrero — who supported President Donald Trump in all three elections — now says ICE raids are gutting his workforce. lamenting to The New York Times that “We just never thought that this would come and affect us in the construction industry.”

Trump’s ICE crackdown has been under fire after several killings and has prompted a DHS shutdown by Democrats demanding reform.

But even supporters of the president’s policies are becoming dissatisfied. In a New York Times report by Jeremy Raff, Ivan Narez Hurtado, and Ben Laffin, Guerrero said “Deporting the criminals is a great policy” — but not when they “show up to our job sites with no warrants, taking all our workers, even the workers with proper documentation”:

TRUMP VOTER MARIO GUERRERO: I did vote for Mr. Trump. Deporting the criminals is a great policy. His foundations are poured ready to go and we can’t even start the construction on them. But we voted for the American dream and unfortunately right now we’re not seeing that.

NARRATOR: For months, federal agents have been sweeping up workers at construction sites in South Texas.

MARCO SANTIVANES: ICE has raided us anywhere between 10 to 15 times throughout different subdivisions.

NARRATOR: Now, work sites across the Rio Grande Valley have ground to a halt. And that’s got some Trump supporters in this midterm battleground changing their minds.

TRUMP VOTER MARIO GUERRERO: These people would just show up to our job sites with no warrants, taking all our workers, even the workers with proper documentation.

NARRATOR: Many who work in the construction industry here told us they largely rely on immigrant workers, some of whom are undocumented. DHS did not respond to the Times’ request for comment, but in a previous statement, it said these raids protect the nation’s workforce.

TRUMP VOTER MARIO GUERRERO: I’ve supported Mr. Trump in every election that he’s been a part of. 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.

ELIUD CAVAZOS: We are seeing a reduction of almost 60% of our volume on the residential side of our business. We applied for bankruptcy in December. We saw a drop in sales of about $5.3 million. For 40 years we had never laid anybody off and until this happened we were forced to.

NARRATOR: And beyond construction, local businesses say fear is keeping shoppers at home.

JEANETTE HERNANDEZ: And there’s been a lot of loss of sales because of that. It killed us this year.

TRUMP VOTER MARIO GUERRERO: Construction is one of the main pillars to the economy here. Everybody’s hurting.

NARRATOR: In the Rio Grande Valley, two of President Trump’s top priorities, the economy and mass deportation are colliding as ice raids upend the construction industry.

Watch above via The New York Times and watch the full report here.

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