Roofers are canceling orders, painters are locking themselves inside nearly completed homes, and concrete crews are booked for months. In the Minneapolis-St. Paul Twin Cities and surrounding suburbs, a Trump administration immigration crackdown has brought residential construction to a near standstill—at a time when Minnesota, like much of the U.S., faces a severe housing shortage. While the White House has begun scaling back a months-long enforcement surge in the state, the repercussions continue to ripple across the housing market.

"I think most of us would rather go back to the pandemic than face the current situation," said a major residential builder in the Minneapolis area, who requested anonymity because some of his sites have been targeted by immigration agents in recent weeks. "For our housing industry, this is an absolute disaster."

President Donald Trump has made housing affordability a core pillar of his domestic agenda, and the U.S. House passed legislation this month aimed at encouraging more new home construction. But the President's intensified immigration enforcement threatens to undermine that effort—leaving the labor force needed to build new homes sidelined.

Like many states, Minnesota's construction industry relies heavily on immigrant labor.

The builder, who oversees hundreds of residential projects across the Midwest, said many of his projects now face delays of months because dozens of work crews are unwilling to return. He reported that agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) stationed themselves for weeks at one of his large apartment project sites, waiting to make arrests. More than nine crews stopped work after seeing enforcement personnel. At one point this month, only six of the 80 roofers he contracts with—regardless of immigration status—were still showing up.

Even days after the White House announced the Minnesota immigration operation would wind down, he said ICE personnel remained active around his sites.

"In real terms, our revenue is down 25 to 30 percent—directly because we can’t move construction forward," he said.

Workers Afraid to Show Up

The large-scale immigration operation, codenamed **Operation Metro Surge**, was carried out primarily by ICE and Customs and Border Protection, deploying up to 3,000 federal officers at its peak.

Launched in December 2025 in Minneapolis and St. Paul, it quickly spread statewide, sparking clashes between federal agents and protesters, including incidents where agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens and detained thousands.

Immigrants play a critical role in U.S. construction: a recent National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) report shows immigrant workers now make up more than 25% of the construction workforce, a record high. It is unclear how many are undocumented.

Builders in Minnesota told CNN they estimate thousands of documented and undocumented construction workers have stayed away from job sites out of fear of harassment, detention, or violent encounters.

Tenant advocacy groups warn that if workers afraid to report miss rent payments, eviction filings could rise. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board voted last week to temporarily suspend eviction proceedings for its rental properties in response to Operation Metro Surge, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune.

Mark Williams, a custom home builder in Minneapolis, said it has become increasingly difficult to find skilled construction labor recently—so much so that he has struggled to start some projects.

"Out of the three concrete workers we work with, two have pushed our schedule back by two months because their crews don’t want to work on any of our sites," Williams said. "They usually subcontract to other masons, but those masons aren’t showing up either."

Williams typically contracts with roofing companies about 30 days before work is needed. But recently, his long-term siding and roofing contractor told him he now needs four to five months' notice to guarantee enough crews to complete the job. He has had to inform clients their projects will be delayed.

Williams said he believes everyone working on his sites has legal work authorization. But like many builders, his company subcontracts work it cannot complete itself, meaning he does not directly employ all laborers on site.

Worsening an Already Tight Labor Shortage

Barack Stenlag, co-owner of another Minnesota construction firm, said since the start of the year he has repeatedly received calls from his project managers reporting that certain subcontractors or suppliers—regardless of immigration status—are refusing to work on projects in Minneapolis out of fear of harassment.

For crews like painters, who work mostly indoors, Stenlag said he has allowed workers to lock themselves inside houses under construction to avoid being seen by agents outside.

Stenlag, who has more than 20 years of experience as a builder, said without immigrant construction workers, there simply aren’t enough people to get the job done.

An NAHB report on the U.S. construction labor market released in fall 2025 estimated that shortages of skilled workers, which prolong construction timelines, cost the U.S. economy $2.7 billion annually.

"Many of the people who are now being targeted, feeling unsafe, are doing a lot of important skilled work," Stenlag said.

Williams said recent ICE actions will likely drive construction costs even higher in Minnesota—where building expenses are already relatively high due to specialized techniques required for extreme temperature swings.

"If everyone needs roofing and siding but no one is willing to do it, those who can will charge exorbitant prices," Williams said. "Homebuilding was already unaffordable; now it could become prohibitively expensive."