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Dallas Business Journal - How mass deportations could affect Texas economy

Mass deportations could have a particularly acute impact in construction. Hard numbers are impossible to come by but Fabiola Barreto, Immigrant Worker Project coordinator at labor group Texas AFL-CIO, estimated that 70% of construction workers are foreign born and 50% are undocumented.

"We could see a collapse of the $106 billion construction industry in Texas, especially in Dallas-Fort Worth," she said. In areas like the DFW Metroplex where the population is surging, a steady workforce is needed to sustain ongoing construction projects to accommodate demand for housing.

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Work-Bites - Now What? How Will Labor Respond to Trump-Musk Assault on US Workers?

After a slow start, resistance, from protests to lawsuits, is developing, but “the sheer volume of the onslaught has taken a lot of people aback,” says Rick Levy, president of the Texas AFL-CIO. The administration’s agenda of turning the government over to tech oligarchs and “obliterating the structure of democracy” is clear, but people in the labor movement are “still formulating the strategy” to counter that, he adds.

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Fox San Antonio - San Antonio federal employees protest for fair contracts for union members

Marinella Murillo, with the Texas AFL-CIO, criticized recent funding cuts led by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

"They've had to lay off employees, they may have to close their doors, all because somebody pushed a little button on a keyboard and it took away their funding," Murillo said.

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Spectrum News 1 Texas - Texas federal workers on edge as Trump administration pursues mass firings

“I’m not going to sit there and say that I don’t check my account every day to make sure that I still have access,” said Brittany Coleman, chief steward for American Federation of Government Employees Local 252. “Based on what I’ve seen, there does not seem to be a rhyme or reason to being put on administrative leave. So it can happen to anyone at any time.”

Coleman is among the almost 130,000 federal workers in Texas.

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