Trump Has Promised to Build More Ships. He May Deport the Workers Who Help Make Them.

Early last year, President-elect Donald Trump promised that when he got back into the Oval Office, he’d authorize the U.S. Navy to build more ships. “It’s very important,” he said, “because it’s jobs, great jobs.” However, the companies that build ships for the government are already having trouble finding enough workers to fill those jobs. And Trump may make it even harder if he follows through on another pledge he’s made: to clamp down on immigration. The president-elect has told his supporters he would impose new limits on the numbers of immigrants allowed into the country and stage the largest mass deportation campaign in history. Meanwhile the shipbuilding industry, which he also says he supports and which has given significant financial support to Republican causes, is struggling to overcome an acute worker shortage. Immigrants have been critical to helping fill the gaps. According to a Navy report from last year, several major shipbuilding programs are years behind schedule, owing largely to a lack of workers. The shortfall is so severe that warship production is down to its lowest level in a quarter century. Shipbuilders and the government have poured millions of dollars into training and recruiting American workers, and, as part of a bipartisan bill just introduced in the Senate, they have proposed to spend even more. Last year the Navy awarded nearly $1 billion in a no-bid contract to a Texas nonprofit to modernize the industry with more advanced technology in a way that will make it more attractive to workers. The nonprofit has already produced splashy TV ads for submarine jobs. One of its goals is to help the submarine industry hire 140,000 new workers in the next 10 years. “We build giants,” one of its ads beckons. “It takes one to build one.” Still, experts say that these robust efforts have so far resulted in nowhere near enough workers for current needs, let alone a workforce large enough to handle expanded production. “We’re trying to get blood from a turnip,” said Shelby Oakley, an analyst at the Government Accountability Office. “The domestic workforce is just not there.” Good journalism makes a difference: Our nonprofit, independent newsroom has one job: to hold the powerful to account. Here’s how our investigations are spurring real world change: Texas lawmakers pushed for new exceptions to the state’s strict abortion ban after we reported on the deaths of pregnant women whose miscarriages went untreated. We’re trying something new. Was it helpful? In the meantime, the industry is relying on immigrants for a range of shipyard duties, with many working jobs similar to those on a construction site, including on cleanup crews and as welders, painters and pipefitters. And executives worry that any future immigration crackdown or restrictions on legal immigration, including limits on asylum or temporary protected status programs, could cause disruptions that would further harm their capacity for production. Ron Wille, the president and chief operating officer of All American Marine in Washington state, said that his company was “clawing” for workers. And Peter Duclos, the president of Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding in Somerset, Massachusetts, said the current immigration system is “so broken” that he was already having trouble holding onto valuable workers and finding more. There is no publicly available data that shows how much the shipbuilding industry relies on immigrant labor, particularly undocumented immigrant labor. Both Wille and Duclos said that they do not employ undocumented workers, and industry experts say undocumented workers are unlikely to be working on projects requiring security clearances. However, reporting by ProPublica last year found that some shipbuilders with government contracts have used such workers. That reporting focused on a major Louisiana shipyard run by a company called Thoma-Sea, where undocumented immigrants have often been hired through third-party subcontractors. The story reported on a young undocumented Guatemalan immigrant who was helping build an $89 million U.S. government ship for tracking hurricanes. When he died on the job after working at Thoma-Sea for two years, neither the company nor the subcontractor paid death benefits to his partner and young son. ProPublica also reported that executives at Thoma-Sea, which declined to comment, had made tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to Republican candidates. However, if Trump’s last time in office is any guide, the shipbuilding industry wouldn’t be exempted from any future crackdown. One of the final workplace raids under Trump’s first administration was conducted at an even larger shipbuilder in Louisiana called Bollinger. In July 2020, federal immigration agents arrested 19 “unlawfully present foreign nationals” at Bollinger’s Lockport shipyard, according to a story in the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate. Immigration and Customs Enforcement refused to provide information on the raid. According to Bollinger’s website, that yard produces U.S. Coast Guard and Navy patrol boats. Five of the workers arrested were sent to an ICE detention center and 14 were released with pending deportation cases, according to the news report. Bollinger denied any wrongdoing following the raid. Four years later, there’s no evidence in publicly available federal court records that Bollinger executives faced any charges in connection to it. Meanwhile, federal electoral records show that the company’s executives donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican elected officials last year, including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, both Republicans from Louisiana. The company did not respond to ProPublica’s requests for comment. President Joe Biden’s administration ended workplace raids like the one at Bollinger, saying that it would instead focus on “unscrupulous employers.” Department of Homeland Security officials did not answer questions or provide data on how many employers had been prosecuted since then. However, Trump’s designated “border czar,” Tom Homan, has signaled that the incoming administration will return to carrying out the raids. When asked how the second Trump administration will increase shipbuilding while limiting immigration, a spokesperson for Trump’s transition team only doubled down on the president-elect’s deportation promises, saying they would focus enforcement on “illegal criminals, drug dealers, and human traffickers.” Immigrants’ Resentment Over New Arrivals Helped Boost Trump’s Popularity With Latino Voters A few days after Trump won the election, a group of undocumented shipyard welders leaving a Hispanic grocery store near the port in Houma, Louisiana, expressed a dim view when asked what they thought lay ahead. One man, who declined to provide his name, broke into a nervous laugh and blurted, “Well, we could be deported.” Another man, a welder from the Mexican state of Coahuila who’d been working in the U.S. for about two years, also declined to give his name but said he worried about losing the life he’d managed to build in this country. “When they grab you,” he said, “they’ll take you, and you’ll have to leave everything behind.” For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

House Republicans look to tee up immigration bills

House Republicans have included five immigration-related measures in an initial package of rules for the 119th Congress, potentially teeing up early floor votes on an issue that the GOP heavily leaned into during the 2024 campaign. The bills appear to be versions of legislation the House passed during the 118th Congress but stalled in the Democrat-controlled Senate. Among the targets are sanctuary cities, consistent with President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign promises to bring down the hammer on municipalities that refuse to cooperate with immigration officials in removing undocumented migrants. If approved, the rules package would set up a potential floor vote on legislation that would cut off federal funds for municipalities considered “sanctuary cities” if they intend to use that money for the benefit of undocumented immigrants. Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., introduced a similar measure that passed in September 2024 on a 219-186 vote. Other immigration-related items in the rules package would set up votes for legislation that would: Require the secretary of Homeland Security to take into custody migrants who have been charged in the United States with theft. Amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide that migrants who have committed sex offenses or domestic violence are inadmissible and deportable. Make the assault of a law enforcement officer a deportable offense. Impose criminal and immigration penalties for intentionally fleeing a pursuing federal officer while operating a motor vehicle. In the 118th Congress, Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., introduced similar legislation on the issue of migrants attacking police officers in the aftermath of high-profile incidents in his state. The House passed the bill in May 2023 on a 255-175 vote. Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., sought to amend comparable legislation to a funding measure on the Senate floor in March 2024, but Democrats refused to allow it to come up for a vote. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., previously introduced legislation against migrants who commit sex offenses or domestic violence, and Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., filed a bill against operating a motor vehicle within 100 miles of the U.S. border while fleeing immigration officials or certain law enforcement officials. The House passed both bills last year. It’s unclear whether each of the measures will get a floor vote. House Republicans also put a slate of measures in the rules package for the 118th Congress in January 2023. While several received floor votes and passed the House, the two immigration bills that were included were sent back to committee instead. One of those bills, by Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy, sought to require the Department of Homeland Security to detain migrants until their asylum claims had been adjudicated, and prevent asylum seekers from entering the country if the authorities did not have the ability to detain them. The other, by Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., would require notification to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and state and local law enforcement when a background check found that a prospective firearm buyer is illegally or unlawfully in the United States. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.