Raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are happening across the country. This is impacting architecture and construction in a big way: One-fifth of the total construction workforce in the U.S. is made up of undocumented immigrants that lack permanent legal status.
Today, folks at New Frameworks—a Vermont-based, “multiracial, queer, trans, and women-owned worker cooperative” with an emphasis on sustainable housing—are scrambling to help one of the cooperative’s co-owners that was “violently abducted” by ICE.
On June 14, Jose Ignacio “Nacho” De La Cruz, a co-owner of New Frameworks, and his daughter, Heidi, were abducted by ICE. Heidi had just graduated high school one week prior.
New Frameworks is now running a fundraiser to support De La Cruz’s family and is circulating a petition to have him and his daughter freed. Beyond being a skilled builder, the business describes De La Cruz as “a cornerstone of the work we do to create healthy, climate-resilient homes in Vermont.”
“I was able to visit Nacho in prison, and he informed me that there are about 30 individuals that are incarcerated at the moment who were picked up by various agents, whether it’s ICE, DHS, or Border Patrol,” Ace McArleton, New Frameworks cofounder and co-CEO, told AN.
“Some of them were working on building houses in Vermont when they were scooped up on job sites. Some folks have temporary protective status, they have documentation,” McArleton said. “We absolutely need to protect our undocumented neighbors, family members, coworkers, and friends, but I’d really like to stress we need to protect everybody at this point.”
Ways to Support
What can building industry professionals do to protect their colleagues? AIA Vermont president Tom Bursey shared resources, put together by New Frameworks in a statement, in an email dated July 3, for AIAVT members interested in supporting De La Cruz and his family.
These efforts include:
Jacob Deva Racusin, a New Frameworks cofounder, said advocacy on behalf of De La Cruz and others comes down to spreading awareness, and preparing oneself for the event of an ICE raid at your job site.
“Awareness alone may only get us so far,” Deva Racusin told AN. “Awareness is important for building community solidarity but it can also lead to people just shutting down and being fearful.”
A Litmus Test?
Other design groups have provided resources for how to protect workers on job sites: TERREMOTO and Topophyla, two California landscape offices, recently teamed up on a messaging campaign to help undocumented immigrants avoid detention during ICE raids, as reported by AN. Similar work is underway at New Frameworks.
“On a more tangible level,” Deva Racusin continued, “we’re helping build support from the state of Vermont and other organizations to put out best practice guidelines for people to protect themselves in regard to workplace safety, in the event authorities show up to detain someone. One thing people can do is access resources and engage in trainings in advance of when unnamed authorities holding weapons show up in unmarked cars.”
For McArleton, where we are now is a litmus test of sorts. “Abuse lives in the shadows. I feel very strongly that this is the line to hold, that this is a test for what our society will take,” he said. “If we don’t show up now for the diversity of folks illegally, unlawfully, and unconstitutionally detained, including public figures who hold office and white men in suits ostensively born here, we will fall for their trap.”
ICE’s Growing Operations
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) recently estimated that ICE has approximately 59,000 people in detention, many of whom are held in private prisons or have been illegally deported, like union sheet metal worker Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
A new detention center nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Florida Everglades, built in just eight days on a remote airport, has drawn comparisons to internment camps by at least one member of Congress. (It is also already flooding.)
In the recent budget passed last week by Congress and advanced by President Trump, ICE will become the largest federal law enforcement agency by budget and receive $45 billion for the construction of new detention centers.
Have you or your building-industry colleagues been impacted by this latest wave of raids? Email [email protected].
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