'I Did Vote for Mr Trump... We're Not Seeing That' — The South Texas Builders Association Chief Who Is Now Paying the Price for His Vote

Mario Guerrero, Executive Director of the South Texas Builders Association and a self-described Trump voter, says the president's mass deportation drive has left the region's construction industry in freefall — with worksites ground to a halt, companies filing for bankruptcy, and former supporters now questioning the administration. His testimony, part of a New York Times video report on how Trump's economic and immigration priorities are colliding in South Texas, has put a named face on a crisis that has been building for months.

'I did vote for Mr Trump. Deporting the criminals is a great policy. These foundations are poured ready to go, and we can't even start the construction on them,' Guerrero said in the footage. 'But we voted for the American dream. And unfortunately, right now, we're not seeing that.'

Sites Raided 'Without Warrants'

Marco Santivañes, a home builder with UR Homes also featured in the Times report, said ICE agents had hit his subdivisions between 10 and 15 times. 'These people would just show up to our job sites with no warrants, taking all our workers, even the workers with proper documentation,' he said. Guerrero corroborated those accounts directly. 'The aggressive ICE enforcement has huge economic consequences in South Texas,' he said. 'We have video proof — all sorts of videos, at this point, I would probably say more than 50, 60, 70 videos of proof — where they are basically just taking everybody, whether they have credentials or not.'

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment. In a previous statement, DHS said the raids were designed to protect the nation's workforce.

Bankruptcy and a $5.3 Million Loss

The impact of the enforcement surge is visible in the balance sheets of firms that have operated in the Valley for decades. Eliud Cavazos, CEO of 57 Concrete, said his company had been pushed into insolvency. 'We are seeing a reduction of almost 60 percent of our volume on the residential side of our business. We applied for bankruptcy in December,' he said. Luis Rodriguez, Sales Manager of Materiales El Valle, described a parallel collapse. 'We saw a drop in sales of about $5.3 million (approximately £4.1 million). For 40 years, we had never laid anybody off, and until this happened, we were forced to,' he said.

Local retailers say the fear spreading through immigrant communities has compounded the damage. 'There's been a lot of loss of sales because of that. It killed us this year,' one business owner said. 'Construction is one of the main pillars to the economy here. Everybody's hurting.'

A Region That Swung Toward Trump Now Counts the Cost

The Rio Grande Valley, where more than 80 per cent of the population is Latino, had been a reliably Democratic stronghold for decades before swinging sharply towards Trump in 2024. 'I think Democrats stopped showing up here. They took this community for granted. And so when Republican politicians showed up and made big promises, people took a chance. A year later, we're seeing those promises weren't kept,' one figure said.

One builder said a planned 196-apartment development that should have taken one year to complete will now take three, directly because of ICE enforcement. County property records show the slowdown has spread across the industry, with banks that lend to homebuilders recording sharp drops in transactions. 'Those numbers were declining to about 30 to 40 percent,' one lender said.

ICE agents have arrested more than 9,100 people in South Texas — nearly one-fifth of all such arrests in the state since Trump took office. Guerrero said construction loans in the region are down about 30 per cent over the past year, while Monica Martinez of the Laredo Chamber of Commerce said contractors are reporting labour shortages, delayed schedules, and rising costs.

Builders Take Case to Washington

Guerrero travelled to Washington with fellow contractors and met with ICE through his congressional representatives. Agents told him that unfenced construction sites are treated as public property, meaning no warrant is required to enter. He responded by fencing in all his properties. 'They basically told us that if a construction site is not fenced in, it's considered public property, and that's why they don't have to show a warrant. So we started fencing in all our properties,' he said. He added that ICE activity at job sites fell after the meeting, but the damage had already been done.

'I hope they realise that this is really, really affecting us and it's affecting the way that we feel towards the administration.'

In January 2026, the South Texas Builders Association held a symposium on Martin Luther King Day, drawing more than 380 people to the Brookhaven Event Center in Pharr, where local businesses described laying off workers for the first time, lending officers reported a steep decline in building loans, and material suppliers spoke of major financial losses. Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar described the situation as 'a national problem' and said he was asking federal officials to ease enforcement at construction sites, as they had previously done for agricultural employers after raids threatened planting and harvest seasons.