After one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history burned over 50,000 acres of Los Angeles County, immigrants are already cleaning up.
After one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history burned over 50,000 acres of Los Angeles County, immigrants are already cleaning up.
With 28 known deaths, up to $275 billion in estimated damages, nearly 17,000 structures destroyed and over 150,000 people who have had to evacuate or lost their homes, quick recovery will be crucial for the future of the city and the economy at large.
But amid deportation threats under the new presidential administration, the construction industry faces massive labor shortages in LA County and nationwide.
After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, President George W. Bush paused employer sanctions for undocumented immigrants. In 2025, business leaders in industries already facing a dearth of workers have called on the incoming administration’s promises to deport as many as 10 million migrants.
‘These threats are real’
“The need for cleanup and rebuilding is immediate,” said Nik Theodore, professor of urban planning and policy at the University of Illinois Chicago, at a Friday, January 24 Ethnic Media Services briefing on the LA fires and deportation threats. “We’re seeing ash with lead and other toxins being leached into the earth, going into the groundwater and the air.”
“Unfortunately, this urgency creates opportunities for worker exploitation,” continued Theodore, who has been researching with the National Day Laborers Organizing Network (NDLON) for nearly 25 years. “In all urban disaster recovery zones we’ve studied, we’ve seen unlicensed contractors, often coming from out of state, who tend to hire local day laborers and other immigrant workers to assemble work crews rapidly.”
“Even in the best of times, in industries where many immigrants work, like construction, government enforcement of labor standards has never been what it needs to be to safeguard workers,” he added.
These standards are often unmet by inadequate provision of personal protective equipment and wage theft, which undocumented workers fear contesting due to deportation threats — especially now.
Nationwide, roughly 30% of construction industry workers are immigrants; in states like California and Texas, the share is 40%.
Last year, the industry’s workforce shortage topped half a million workers needed nationwide.
“We’ll have to depend on immigrants to rebuild from this disaster. But folks are going to be too afraid to show up for these jobs,” said Jennie Murray, president and CEO of the National Immigration Forum (NIM). The 2028 Olympics, which LA is still slated to host, “is right on the heels of this. The industry would have to be growing robustly even if it weren’t for the fires.”
A Department of Homeland Security memo released Thursday also allows immigration enforcement agents to quickly deport migrants who came to the U.S. under Biden parole programs; this puts 1.5 million migrants at risk, mostly from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
“When we see more overreach and start to see folks being prioritized who are contributing, not violent criminals, not eligible for deportation, I think we’ll start to see American voters say ‘This is not what I signed up for. This was not a blank check,’” added Murray.
A nationwide poll of 1,200 adults nationwide, released by NIM and The Bullfinch Group, found that 60% of Republicans and 67% of voters overall said immigration enforcement should prioritize violent criminals and those with final orders of removal rather than “all individuals without legal status.”
“The country is used to benefitting from migrant labor, but not everyone’s ready to accept their humanity,” said Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of NDLON. “Don’t fall into the trap that this administration wants to go only after ‘violent criminals.’ It’s what President Obama did when he used the phrase ‘felons, not families.’ The vast majority of people that he deported did not represent any threat to public safety.”
‘It burned away our differences’
At the NDLON center in Pasadena, a mile south of the Eaton fire, “Workers are fleeing devastation of biblical proportions,” he continued. “Members are saying: ‘What I have on, it’s all I possess in this life. Not only my apartment is gone, but the house I clean is gone.’”
He estimates that NDLON is the largest community disaster response operation in the area, serving 1,000 people daily, including 500 cars coming to pick up donations of food, clothing, diapers and N95 masks.
“No one expects any government to be prepared for such a catastrophe. When that happens, that’s when humble people lend a hand,” said Alvarado. “At a street corner by our center, a huge tree fell and was blocking the street … So we had an assembly of skilled workers and created a fire brigade.”
“We removed that tree, then the next, then the next one, and we posted a picture on social media, and all of a sudden hundreds, then thousands of volunteers came to Pasadena. The local government sent them all here,” he explained. “The fire destroyed so much, but at least with the people that have come here, it burned away our differences.”
“MAGA folks were helping hand-to-hand, with members of the DSA, clearing driveways with blocked access … They weren’t asking whether the owner of a home they’re clearing up was a Republican or a Democrat, a friend or a foe,” added Alvarado. “As we speak, there are 15 brigades removing debris across the city, and immigrant workers are leading the effort.”
“Many families have lost their identification papers — their passport, their consular papers, and it’s complicated to even pay for new documents,” said Anabella Bastida, membership director at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA).
The coalition, which has over 51,000 members, has partnered with the Mexican consulate, “trying to convey all the people and contacts we can,” she continued. “We’re connecting immigrants to food assistance and social services … and particularly providing cash assistance to low-income families and those not eligible for FEMA, or fear providing their information. Yesterday, one family said: ‘I’m not going to risk providing my information to the government when I’m going to put my livelihood in jeopardy.”
CHIRLA is also partnering with local churches and the county school district to provide nearly 150 training sessions on knowing one’s rights in the event of an ICE encounter.
“We’re going to shelters, but not many members of the community are showing up. The undocumented population is really afraid of what is happening. We’ve seen ICE raids in Bakersfield, and yesterday, ICE agents in LA County,” said Bastida.
“We’re trying to convey the message that this is happening, we need to be prepared, but at the same time, we can’t be paralyzed,” she added. “We can’t continue not going to school, not going to hospitals, not getting the help we need … if we’re going to rebuild LA.”
