Every morning long before dawn, while America sleeps, legions of Texas construction workers grab their fluorescent vests and hard hats, sling ladders and tools into their trucks, and head down the highway for another day of grueling labour under the blistering sun.
asserted
legions → sleep → sun
Elsewhere, before the first flush of daylight settles over Texas’s concrete sprawl, a separate army gets on the move in a fleet of shiny unmarked SUVs.
asserted
army → settle → SUVs
They hover at gas stations, prowl around bodegas, pounce on the highways.
asserted
They → hover → highways
They’re on their way to work too.
asserted
They → ’re → work
But the federal agents who form this second army are on a different mission.
asserted
who → form → mission
Unlike the builders, they are not forging the US’s future one new starter home at a time.
asserted
they → forge → time
Their job is to pursue those who do the building: they follow the framers, track down the roofers, chase the cement masons and concrete finishers.
asserted
they → pursue → masons
“In Texas, you go deer hunting in the early morning,” said Jacob Monty, an immigration lawyer in Houston.
asserted
Monty → go → Houston
“That’s what they are doing.
asserted
they → ’ → what
They are hunting for construction workers, early in the morning, like you would an animal.”
asserted
you → hunt → animal
Texas and its construction workforce are the ground zero of Donald Trump’s latest mass deportation effort, dubbed ICE 2.0.
asserted
Texas → dub → effort
As the US president has pivoted from last year’s militarized “invasions” of Los Angeles and Minneapolis to this year’s less visible but no less devastating stop-and-search tactics, he has found rich pickings in Texas.
asserted
he → pivot → Texas
Texas is seeing by far the greatest number of ICE arrests in the country.
asserted
Texas → see → country
Of every 10 construction workers in Texas, four are foreign born, most of whom are Hispanic and undocumented.
asserted
most → bear → whom
“This is low-hanging fruit,” Monty said.
asserted
Monty → hang → ?
“If you target Texas Hispanics in trucks, you have a good chance of nabbing an undocumented person, and feeding the mass deportation machine.
asserted
you → target → machine
But there is a price to pay for ICE casting its dragnet through Texas barrios and building sites as it seeks to meet its new target of 3,000 immigration arrests daily.
asserted
it → be → arrests
The street-level apprehensions are roiling the state, distorting its economy, forcing up house prices and the cost of groceries.
asserted
apprehensions → roil → groceries
Hispanic families are also being torn apart.
asserted
families → tear → ?
Hardworking people are being pushed into the shadows, others disappearing as they flee the country or are deported.
asserted
they → push → country
The foundations of new homes are lying unfinished, building sites empty.
asserted
sites → lie → homes
With the midterm elections just days away, and hugely consequential congressional races as well as the gubernatorial contest hanging in the balance, there are also political costs.
asserted
races → hang → balance
Trump appears to be digging a hole for himself with Texas’s Hispanic voters.
asserted
Trump → appear → voters
Latino Texans who were born in the US or have naturalised, and thus can vote, are increasingly angry and confused.
asserted
who → bear → US
Many of them voted for Trump two years ago, attracted by his promise of a stronger economy and a fortified border that would keep out “criminal” immigrants.
asserted
that → vote → immigrants
They delivered Trump a historic victory, even in majority-Hispanic districts that had been Democratic strongholds for more than a century – voters like Sergio Benavides, 44, the owner of a home-building construction company in the Texas borderlands of the Rio Grande valley.
asserted
that → deliver → valley
A naturalised US citizen, he voted for Trump in 2024.
asserted
he → vote → 2024
He liked his campaign promises that he would lower prices and secure the border.
asserted
he → like → border
When people warned him it would turn sour, he didn’t listen.
asserted
he → warn → him
He’s listening now.
asserted
He → listen → ?
The prices of homes, food and gas have all gone up.
asserted
prices → go → homes
Workers have to be paid more because so many have been deported.
asserted
many → have → more
One of his subcontractors and his wife have disappeared, picked up by ICE, leaving behind three US-citizen children.
asserted
One → disappear → children
“That makes me sad,” he said.
asserted
he → make → ?
“We are here to protect our families, send our kids to college, to learn and grow.
asserted
We → protect → college
This is not what I thought when I voted for Trump.”
asserted
I → think → Trump
Benavides is part of a backlash that is showing up in the polls.
asserted
that → show → polls
Latino voters are turning against the president on the very issues that drew them to him – the cost of living, and immigration enforcement.
asserted
that → turn → living
A poll last month from Equis Research found that disapproval of Trump had risen to 63% among Texas Latinos.
asserted
disapproval → find → Latinos
In the critical US Senate race, which could determine which party holds the upper chamber during Trump’s final two years in office, 58% of likely Latino voters intend to back the Democratic candidate James Talarico, while only 33% support the scandal-ridden Republican, Ken Paxton.
uncertain
% → determine → Republican
…and 189 more, not listed.
The Aporia
