Jay Kuo writes:

Texas relies heavily on undocumented labor, especially in the construction sector. According to a report by the American Immigration Council and Texans for Economic Growth, around 60 percent of the immigrant workforce in the state is undocumented. That’s a quarter of a million workers. Deporting them would devastate the industry and drive up housing prices in the state.

Marek, a big Houston-based residential and commercial construction company, warned NPR of the consequences. “It would devastate our industry, we wouldn’t finish our highways, we wouldn’t finish our schools,” said Stan Marek, its CEO. “Housing would disappear. I think they’d lose half their labor.”

Other industry experts concurred. “It’s not remotely practical to round up and deport everybody,” said economist Ray Perryman, the president and CEO of the Waco-based Perryman Group.

The Texas workforce simply isn’t large enough to keep pace with the state’s growth, noted Perryman. A massive roundup could substantially impact the Texas economy. “And, we simply don’t have an economic structure that can sustain that. There are more undocumented people working in Texas right now than there are unemployed people in Texas,” Perryman said. [Continue reading…]