Recent increases in deportation rates may affect the housing supply in Utah, creating a construction worker shortage and resulting in less affordable homes.
Data collected in 2022 from the American Immigration Council says that 114,200 unauthorized migrants are in the state of Utah. Steve Waldrip, the Utah housing affordability czar, says that around 10% of all construction workers in Utah could be taken from this pool of migrants.
Utah has a total of about 143,000 construction workers, according to the Department of Workforce Services; roughly 14,000 of these are projected to be unauthorized migrants, while 29,300 are immigrants in general.
“Right now, our immigration policy is so fractured that people are taking whoever they can get, regardless of how they got here,” says Waldrip. He also added that homebuilders were already facing a shortage of construction workers, before deportation rates increased.
Utah is facing a population boom and outpacing construction, which leads to an increased housing shortage.
Some argue that deporting migrants will open housing supply and decrease costs. This comes from the idea that with a decreasing number of individuals in the state who need a place to live, housing demand will also go down, says Waldrip. He also adds that despite this fact, the impact will likely be much less than people think.
Utah Legislation, according to Senate President Stuart Adams, hopes to reaffirm a commitment to the Utah Compact made 15 years ago. This policy states that immigrants who are productive are integrated into the economy, while those who are unproductive will be deported.
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Author: Tallon Taylor
Photographer: Anna Mower
Editor: Anna Mower
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