Each year, thousands of immigrant workers travel hundreds of miles to clear toxic debris, haul away fallen trees and begin reconstruction in the aftermath of hurricanes.
But as residents start returning to Pensacola, Fla., and other areas where Hurricane Isaias ripped off roofs and toppled trees onto houses last week, workers and organizers warn of a potential labor shortage fueled by fear of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
That could pose a challenge for the recovery effort in the Panhandle, where disaster loss, including damage to commercial and residential properties, could exceed $1 billion by some estimates.
Immigration arrests were near all-time highs in almost every state over the summer. But in Florida, they surged to more than 230 a day in July, up by over 100 arrests daily since the spring. The spike was fueled partly by local agencies, such as sheriff’s departments, deputized to carry out federal immigration enforcement.
“For sure, we need to make a living,” said Santos Alvarado, a disaster response veteran who has worked in the aftermath of more than 20 hurricanes since Katrina in 2005. “But the brutality of what ICE is doing to people scares us.”
Fear intensified this week after word spread that immigrants repairing a restaurant’s roof in Pensacola Beach were ordered by men who identified themselves as the police to come down, triggering a two-hour standoff until the officers departed.
The officers weren’t immigration agents. Yet news of the encounter spread swiftly across the disaster response network.
Saket Soni, executive director of the disaster worker advocacy nonprofit Resilience Force, said that an 18-person crew of experienced roofers canceled its trip to Pensacola after hearing about the standoff and reports of federal agents at a local Home Depot and other places in the area.
A possible shortage of disaster laborers would echo fallout from immigration enforcement already straining construction, health care and other industries that depend on foreign workers.
Mr. Alvarado, who has done everything from demolition to rebuilding, said he was still debating whether to work the Isaias recovery.
As an immigrant from Honduras, Mr. Alvarado said he felt particularly vulnerable after the Trump administration stripped Temporary Protected Status, a legal safeguard, from Hondurans. He has lived in the United States since 1993 and has U.S.-born children.
In response to questions, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that no ICE agents had been at the restaurant and referred inquiries to the Florida Department of Financial Services.
Sydney Booker, the state agency’s spokeswoman, said that investigators had visited the site as part of efforts to prevent “fraudsters and unlicensed contractors” from exploiting storm victims.
Like migrant farmworkers who follow crops, hurricane workers move from disaster to disaster, often arriving before power has been restored and while conditions are still hazardous. They sleep in motels, tents and their vehicles.
The National Hurricane Center has predicted a below-normal season for this year, making a major storm unlikely before the season ends next month.
But the Pensacola area desperately needs hands.
After surveying the wreckage, Mr. Soni of Resilience Force said that laborers were in demand to repair everything from waterfront homes worth millions of dollars to mobile homes further inland, as well as damaged businesses.
“Since Hurricane Katrina, it’s always been vulnerable immigrants who have responded to hurricanes,” said Mr. Soni, who has been on the ground in Pensacola since Sunday.
Early Tuesday morning, immigrant workers were working on the wind-torn roof of the Grand Marlin, an imposing restaurant on Pensacola Beach, when four men wearing shirts inscribed with “police” ordered them down. The workers didn’t comply.
Grace McCaffery, a community advocate, said that she had been contacted by the spouses of the workers, who had called their families to inform them of what appeared to be immigration agents.
“Wives of the workers called me crying because their husbands were surrounded and scared they would be arrested,” she said.
The state agency’s spokeswoman said the officers weren’t enforcing immigration laws.
Bryan Housley, the restaurant’s president and operating partner, said that his business had hired a “local, reputable roofing company” to repair the roof, noting that the same contractor had worked at their location in Panama City, Fla.
“Long story short, they were authorized to work here,” Mr. Housley said.
Repairs would resume soon with a different crew from the same company, he said.
“No, those workers don’t want to come back,” Mr. Housley said. “That company has quite a few people that work for them, and those gentlemen said, ‘No thank you, we don’t want to experience what happened to us yesterday ever again.’”
Saul Hernandez, with 23 hurricanes under his belt, traveled to Florida last weekend to assess the devastation. By Wednesday, he was back in Louisiana, a hub for hurricane workers, trying to recruit other people.
It’s been a hard pitch.
“My colleagues are asking if there’s any guarantee ICE won’t be there bothering people who work,” said Mr. Hernandez, a Salvadoran immigrant. “They are eager to work to support their families, but they are also afraid.”
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