ICE Raids Just Delivered Louisiana Workers The Raise Biden Never Could
Joe Biden spent four years telling Americans that illegal aliens were doing jobs Americans wouldn't do.
Meanwhile, construction workers across the country watched their wages stagnate while contractors hired poverty-wage foreign workers who undercut them at every turn.
But ICE just proved Biden and the media dead wrong with what's happening in Louisiana right now.
Young Worker Exposes The Truth About Immigration And Wages
A 27-year-old Louisiana construction worker dropped a truth bomb that left coastal elites scrambling for cover.
Since ICE launched Operation Catahoula Crunch in New Orleans on December 3, this young man's work life changed overnight.¹
The video of him explaining what's really happening on construction sites is exactly what you won't hear on 60 Minutes or from any Democrat talking head.
For nine years under Trump's first term, Biden, and now Trump's second term, he watched the same pattern play out.
When illegals flooded worksites, American crews got squeezed out by contractors who could hire foreigners at poverty wages.
But now that ICE has federal agents patrolling Louisiana?
Those foreign workers aren't showing up anymore.
And suddenly this American worker has more contracts than he can handle.
His wife and kids are better off because he's not competing against people being paid a fraction of what American labor costs.
The Department of Homeland Security deployed 250 Border Patrol agents to Louisiana aiming to make 5,000 arrests over two months.²
Illegals working construction sites took one look at that operation and vanished.
Nobody wants to risk deportation for a construction job when ICE is actively hunting.
The Media's Dirty Secret About Construction Wages
Here's what media outlets won't tell you about America's construction industry.
One out of every four construction workers in America is foreign-born.³
Texas and California are even worse — 40% of their construction crews came from other countries.⁴
And here's the kicker: more than half of those foreign-born workers have no legal right to be here.⁵
That's up to 1.6 million jobs in the construction industry filled by people who shouldn't be in this country.
Construction companies operated a rigged system for decades.
They hired illegals through subcontractors and labor brokers who paid poverty wages while the boss stuffed his pockets.⁶
American workers couldn't compete because contractors would always pick the cheapest bid.
And the cheapest bid came from whoever was willing to exploit foreign workers the most.
Texas contractors pay 40% less for construction labor than contractors in big Northeastern union cities.⁷
That gap exists because Texas contractors employ illegals who don't get overtime, Social Security, or unemployment insurance.
American construction workers saw their wages flatline while contractors got rich.
In California, construction wages stood at $45 an hour in the late 1980s.⁸
By 2018, after decades of illegal aliens flooding the industry, those same jobs paid just $11 an hour.
Biden told Americans this system was good for them.
His administration claimed mass deportations would hurt the economy and American workers would suffer.
The Louisiana construction worker just eviscerated that narrative.
Democrats Lied About Who Benefits From Deportations
Trump's immigration enforcement operations are creating exactly what the administration promised.
As DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin stated, "as illegal aliens continue to exit the labor force, more Americans are finding steady and gainful employment."⁹
Louisiana's Operation Catahoula Crunch targeted criminal illegals being released by sanctuary policies.¹⁰
But the operation had a secondary effect Democrats never wanted anyone to see.
When illegals stopped showing up to construction sites out of fear of deportation, American workers filled those gaps.
The young Louisiana worker isn't dealing with contractors who undercut him with poverty-wage labor anymore.
He's getting contracts. His family is thriving. This is what winning looks like for American workers.
Economic studies show that some native workers in immigrant-heavy occupations see wage increases of 3% to 7% when immigration enforcement removes cheap foreign competition.¹¹
The New York Times accidentally admitted Trump's deportations could give construction workers a 17% wage gain.¹²
Democrats and their media allies panicked when that information got out.
They scrambled to spin it as somehow bad for America that working-class families were making more money.
The elites never cared about blue-collar wages during election season beyond pretending to for votes.
The moment Democrats got elected, they opened the borders and flooded industries with cheap foreign labor that destroyed American workers' earning power.
Louisiana's construction workers just exposed the whole con.
Governor Jeff Landry supported the operation fully, even renovating the Angola state penitentiary to house criminal illegals arrested by ICE.¹³
Louisiana law enforcement collaborated with federal agents to protect them during operations.
The state's Attorney General Liz Murrill made clear anyone interfering with ICE would face prosecution.
That's what real support for American workers looks like.
Not Biden's empty promises while he let millions of illegals pour across the border to undercut wages.
The young Louisiana construction worker's video tells you everything you need to know about whose side Democrats are really on.
And it's not the side of the American families trying to make an honest living.
¹ DHS, "DHS Launches Operation Catahoula Crunch," December 3, 2025.
² Louisiana Illuminator, "Feds' immigration crackdown begins in Louisiana," December 4, 2025.
³ KPMG, "Construction in the crosshairs," April 2025.
⁴ Ibid.
⁵ Urban Institute, "Mass Deportations Would Worsen Our Housing Crisis," 2025.
⁶ DEITABASE, "The perils of Undocumented Construction Workers," May 28, 2024.
⁷ Missouri Independent, "If Trump wants more deportations," July 1, 2025.
⁸ Breitbart, "NYTimes: Trump Deportations Will Raise Wages," April 3, 2025.
⁹ NPR, "ICE is sending a chill through the construction industry," November 6, 2025.
¹⁰ DHS, "DHS Launches Operation Catahoula Crunch," December 3, 2025.
¹¹ University of Texas, "The Economic Ripple Effects of Mass Deportations," September 9, 2025.
¹² Breitbart, "NYTimes: Trump Deportations Will Raise Wages," April 3, 2025.
¹³ Louisiana Illuminator, "Feds' immigration crackdown begins in Louisiana," December 4, 2025.
