ICE raids, and the Palisades and Altadena Fires One Year Later

Описание: Rebuilding isn’t just about permits and insurance. It’s about labor, confidence, and whether the people who actually build our homes feel safe showing up to work.

Right now, only about 1 in 5 destroyed homes have even been issued a rebuilding permit, and only fewer than a dozen are fully completed. That’s not a recovery. That’s a bottleneck.

Immigrants make up a huge share of California’s construction workforce, and ICE has been targeting them regardless of legal status. When fear pulls workers off job sites, supply shrinks, timelines stretch, and prices don’t fall; they usually rise.

Politics aside, pragmatically speaking, the equation is simple:
fewer builders → fewer homes → tighter inventory.

We can care about border policy and be honest about how it affects housing and the people. Right now, the immigration crackdown is terrifying and harming our communities.

Sources:
• CalMatters – LA fire rebuild permitting data
• LA Times – Deportations threaten wildfire rebuilding efforts
• Vox – One year after LA fires, few homes rebuilt
• ABC7 – Rebuilding progress report in Palisades & Altadena
• Realtor.com – ICE raids and construction labor impacts
• Urban Institute – Mass deportations & housing supply research
• UCI Social Ecology – Economic impact of immigration enforcement on local business
• UCLA Center for Health Policy and Research – The Economic Impact of Mass Deportation in California