Advocate: Immigration arrests in construction cause fear that impacts all workers

NINA MOINI: This is Minnesota Now. I'm Nina Moini. A recent raid on a construction site in St. Paul has alarmed neighbors and immigrant advocates. ICE confirmed agents arrested four people who were working on a roof project on Thursday. A spokesperson for the agency said three of the four had criminal convictions, but did not provide names or further information. MPR News has not independently verified those details. At a vigil later on, immigrant advocates said arrests like these are creating a climate of fear.

We're going to check in now about how this moment is impacting people working in the Twin Cities, who could be subject to immigration arrests. Joining me now is Merle Payne, executive director of the advocacy group CTUL. Thanks for your time this afternoon, Merle.

MERLE PAYNE: Thank you for having me, Nina.

NINA MOINI: For starters, Merle, could you talk about what CTUL is, for folks who don't know, and how you work with immigrants who are working here in Minnesota?

MERLE PAYNE: Yes. So CTUL is the Centro De Trabajadores Unidos En La Lucha, or the Center of Workers United in Struggle. We are a worker center based in the Twin Cities metro area, and we organize to make sure that all workers have fair treatment in the workplace and really focus on deep leadership development, so the most impacted workers are on the front lines of standing up for their rights.

NINA MOINI: Can you tell me a little bit, Merle, about how you heard about the raid on the construction crew last week, or what your response was when you heard about that? How do you respond as a group?

MERLE PAYNE: Sure. We heard about the raid shortly afterwards. I'm hearing it from some people in our own base as well as in the broader community. But I think in the bigger scale, what we see is like in the short-term, these types of immigration raids are really hurting the entire construction industry. There's a recent article in Axios that talked about what we're seeing in Washington, DC, is that developers are being impacted by this, as fears of immigration raids are ending up stalling timelines and driving up the costs of commercial and residential projects. So this is having a bigger impact on the entire industry.

Also, in the long-term, these immigration raids are really an attempt by the current federal administration to villainize a certain population while billionaires rake in profits off of all of our backs.

NINA MOINI: How often are you hearing about these types of actions or raids, or people being arrested where they're working? How are you to know the scale of that?

MERLE PAYNE: We hear pretty frequently about immigration raids that are happening. And I think, again, it points to really what this is about, is about marginalizing a certain community so that they are too fearful to be able to come forward. And when this sort of thing happens, they lose trust in government agencies in coming forward to speak about their rights or when wage theft happen.

I mean, the irony of this is just last month, a labor broker in St. Paul of a roofing company was charged by Ramsey County for stealing $118,000 in wages from roofing workers. So, on the one hand, we are seeing rampant wage theft happening in this industry. On the other hand, we are seeing an administration that is trying to drive fear into a community to make them more vulnerable to wage theft, and that impacts all workers in the industry.

NINA MOINI: What about that fear? Are you hearing from people who are no longer going to work, no longer going to the same places? Is this causing people to make adjustments in their lives?

MERLE PAYNE: Yeah. The fears that we hear are that people are more afraid than ever to be able to come forward and complain when they do face wage theft or when there is a case of labor trafficking. What we have seen in the industry is one out of every four construction workers in Minnesota has experienced some form of wage theft. 57% of female construction workers complain about regular sexual harassment in the workplace. This is just the nature of this industry. And when you bring more fear the community, those sorts of violations are only going to increase.

NINA MOINI: In larger cities, shifting gears a little bit, here in the US, there have been raids on workplaces. There's obviously a lot of tension in Chicago right now because of the presence of ICE and Border Patrol agents. And today National Guard troops are expected to deploy there. Governor Walz has said that that is not out of the question, that something like that would happen in Minneapolis or here in Minnesota. Is this something that you are having front of mind right now, or how are you hearing people talk about this or prepare for something like this?

MERLE PAYNE: Yeah. People are, I think, around the country are talking about this and are preparing. And again, I think what we are seeing is this really Trump administration trying to drive a wedge in the community by sending National Guard to communities, by increasing fear in communities. And I think it's important for us to take a step back and look at the big picture. Like the three wealthiest men in the United States collectively own more wealth than the entire 50% of the entire population of the United States right now.

This income inequality is only getting worse under a Trump administration. So all of these tactics, these increases in immigration rates, the fear in our communities, these distractions are really about the rich getting richer off of all of our backs.

NINA MOINI: It's hard when we don't have the paperwork to confirm this, but what do you say to people who say, well, these people had criminal convictions on their records and the Trump administration is just being more enforcing things in an expanded way or in a different way? What do you say to people who say that, that this is targeting people who have been convicted of crimes?

MERLE PAYNE: I think just looking at the facts, it's just not true that is who is being targeted. The people who are being picked up are everyday people in our community who are hard workers, who are investing in our community. They're our neighbors. The real facts are that that's who's being detained right now. And it is that attempt to drive fear in an entire community and drive a wedge.

NINA MOINI: And just lastly, Merle, what are you hearing from employers who are perhaps, as you said, concerned about their workforce and their employees not being able to show up to work or being arrested on the job? How do you see their role in this?

MERLE PAYNE: I think a lot of smaller employers are concerned about this and are seeing impacts, knowing that their workforce are hard workers who are dedicated and are putting in a good time and good work. I think what the larger employers, what we're seeing is that they are seeing an opportunity for a group of workers that are so much more fearful, are going to hide even more in the shadows. This is an opportunity to drive down wages for everyone and we're going to see impacts. As long as this sort of thing continues to happen, we're going to see all of our wages being lowered as a result of this.

NINA MOINI: Merle, I want to thank you for your time, and I hope you'll join us again to continue to keep us informed about what you're seeing and your perspective. I appreciate it.

MERLE PAYNE: Yes, thank you for your time, Nina. Take care.

NINA MOINI: Merle Payne is executive director of CTUL, an organization that advocates for low-wage workers in the Twin Cities.