The Home Depot parking lot labor economy is at heart of Trump's ICE immigration battle

The recent ICE raids in Los Angeles area Depot store parking lots sparked tests and national headlines, but also call into question a day laborer market that has been critical to the U

It says fears in the community will delay construction jects across the country that are already behind schedule

Around 30 agents wearing tactical gear were stationed near a Depot in Paramount and faced off against testers, south of downtown Los Angeles

Apu Gomes | Getty Images News | Getty Images imvement store parking lots were once teeming with aspiring laborers looking for a day's work

Contractors needing temporary help would swing by and scoop up a few workers for the day, and a symbiotic ecosystem thrived

Workers could snag a day's pay, and contractors could get cheap, temporary help without all the paperwork

Since President Trump was reelected, labor experts have warned of unpredictable outcomes for sectors dependent on immigrant labor, including construction and residential housing

The recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Los Angeles area Depot store parking lots sparked tests and put a nationwide pall over the day laborer community

But beyond the deployment of troops and political finger-pointing, labor experts say that the Depot parking lot sweeps could have wide-ranging effects on whether critical work in the U

George Carrillo, CEO of the Hispanic Construction Council, estimates there are tens of thousands of "parking lot day laborers" across the country and that the recent ICE raids will have a chilling effect that ripples through the entire economy. "We have members reaching out to us seeing what they should do; they are scared," Carrillo said

The practice of workers gathering in imvement store parking lots to seek employment is a longstanding part of the labor landscape and many of these workers come from Latin American countries, including Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, which are among the countries targeted by the Trump administration's tightening immigration policies. "They are trying to earn a living and have a tough decision to make: pop my head out and get deported or don't and can't support my family," Carrillo said

Carrillo says he is hearing more and more reports of ICE raids targeting construction sites where whole groups of workers are rounded up

Already delayed construction jects will lagThe day laborer crackdown will exacerbate an already tenuous labor market in the U

Carrillo says that construction jects were 14% behind schedule when Trump took office, but that has now risen to 22% as deportations and immigration enforcement have thinned out the construction labor market. "We are getting farther behind on jects, and we are seeing across the country wherever there is a crackdown, people are not showing up for work," Carrillo said

Day laborers are not the workers on massive construction jects, more ly to be picked up by subcontractors who need help painting or reframing closets

But he added, "If the smaller subcontractor can't get those jobs done, it has a ripple effect throughout the construction industry. "Jason Greer, a labor consultant and founder and CEO of Greer consulting, says that the crackdown is causing a slowdown in construction due to a shortage in labor. "Day laborers are scared to death to show up at places Lowes, Depot, etc

Because they do not want to be arrested by ICE," he said

While ICE has not ed directly on the Depot raids, they told the Los Angeles NBC affiliate "U

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and agents are on the streets every day, prioritizing public safety by locating, arresting, and removing criminal alien offenders and immigration violators from our neighborhoods," ICE's statement read. "All aliens in violation of U

Immigration law may be subject to arrest, detention and if found removable by final order, removed from the U

Depot tells CNBC while it does not allow laborers to sell their services on the premises, they are also not involved in any ICE operations. " many es, we have a longstanding no-solicitation policy, which hibits anybody from selling goods or services on our perty," said a Depot spokesperson. "I'd also add that we aren't notified when ICE activity is going to happen, and we aren't involved in the operations

We instruct associates to report the incident immediately and not to engage in the activity for their safety

If associates feel uncomfortable after witnessing ICE activity, we offer them the option to go for the rest of the day, with pay," the Depot spokesperson said

Lowe's and Menards did not respond to requests for

Lax enforcement, Hermanns said, incentivizes people to directly or indirectly hire unauthorized workers, creating a two-tiered system where some workers are paid under the table while companies HireQuest and others pay the requisite workers' compensation and social security

However, Hermanns said a crackdown the one happening now also creates complications because it reduces an already thin labor pool, which forces wages higher and then spreads throughout the economy in the form of inflation. "The ripple effects are much deeper and broader than what anyone understands," Hermanns said. "Candidly to me, our entire political establishment is unserious looking at all of the effects," he added

Higher wages can be good because they draw people into the labor pool who might otherwise sit at . "But moving the foundational wage 20 percent higher is incredibly bad for inflation," Hermanns said

For es, Hermanns says the whiplash between the administrative apaches breeds uncertainty. "I'd rather have more lax or more strict; the uncertainty is worse

What needs to be done is for people from both camps to come together and realize what we have is unsustainable," he said

Atlanta-based immigration attorney Loren Locke says that the current sweeps of imvement store parking lots are doing nothing to solve the country's complicated immigration situation

Locke noted that while day laborers who gather at imvement store parking lots skew heavily toward immigrants and disportionately lack U

Work authorization, there is no reason to think the population is a good source of dangerous criminal immigrants. "Rather, they seem more easy pickings for ICE to hit daily arrest quotas," Locke said

She points to the complex web of immigration grams that have evolved over the years, creating an unsustainable system. "We are in such a mess right now because there are millions of workers in the U

Who are in this gray immigration ," Locke said. "They were allowed in, and now we are going back to treating them they are all criminals who need to be deported immediately. "Locke pointed out that there are children who were bestowed DACA and are now grandparents. "This has not been fixed for their entire adult life," Locke said

Meanwhile, contractors and subcontractors throughout the construction food chain are finding a small labor pool heading into the summer season

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