America’s Labor Crisis: Why Immigration Reform is the Answer

Sarah Ahrendt is a former ICU and neuro-renal nurse who transitioned into the construction industry in 2014, where she found her passion. Now a leader in construction, Sarah is dedicated to education, transparency, and successful project execution. She brings a unique perspective on the role of immigrant labor in critical industries and how immigration reform could reshape the U.S. economy.

 In this thought-provoking discussion, host Kali and guest Sarah Ahrendt explore the deep connections between immigration, labor shortages, and economic stability. With businesses across the U.S.—from construction to agriculture—heavily relying on immigrant workers, the conversation dives into why immigration reform is crucial for both red and blue states. They tackle the hidden realities of undocumented labor, the barriers to legal work pathways, and the controversial role of border control in shaping the workforce.

Key Topics:

• The Economic Need for Immigrant Labor: How industries like construction, agriculture, and hospitality depend on undocumented workers.
• The Construction Industry & Immigration: Why 90-95% of roofing labor in some states is undocumented and how the system forces business owners into a legal gray area.
• The Policy Debate: Should immigration reform happen before or after stricter border control?
• Gang-Controlled Border Crossings: The shocking financial and human costs of crossing the U.S. border, including forced drug trafficking and ransom payments.
• The Future of U.S. Jobs: Why America can't bring back manufacturing without fixing the labor shortage through immigration reform.

Potential Listener Questions:

1. How does immigration reform directly impact businesses and job growth in the U.S.?
2. What are the hidden realities of undocumented labor in industries like construction and agriculture?
3. Should border security be enforced before or after creating legal immigration pathways?
4. How do gangs exploit migrants trying to cross the U.S. border, and how can this be prevented?

References and Links:

• Connect with Sarah Ahrendt: Instagram    Website

Final Thoughts:

Sarah emphasizes that without immigration reform, the U.S. economy cannot grow. The system is broken, forcing business owners into legal loopholes while gangs profit off border crossings. The solution? A legal pathway for workers that benefits businesses, the economy, and national security.

Find out more about Kali and the show HERE: https://humanityoffame.com/

Transcript

0:00

(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) If you created a legal pathway, there's no incentive for the gangs to be able to get make money. You take away from their ability to make money. If you can create a legal pathway, certainly you have to shut the borders in order to be able to create the legal pathway, but then you got to create the legal pathway because we need this labor. Hi guys, it's your girl, Callie. Thank you for joining me. Welcome to Humanity of Fame and happy Valentine's Day to the lovebugs out there. All right. Hope you are enjoying your day. That being said, let's go ahead and get started with today's topic. All right. So in a country that's built by immigrants, the story of food and labor is one of tradition, innovation, and controversy. Businesses depend on various forms of immigration. States red and blue alike, they thrive because of it. Yet the U.S. immigration system remains broken. All right. So I want to get into an article that discusses a little bit about this topic. All right. We're going to start with this article with Fast Company. Okay. And this is a well-renowned known chef. Okay. Named Jose Andres, where he speaks about immigration reform. All right. So let's dig into it a little bit. Okay. So he states here, immigration reform has to happen, Andres said, citing 11 million dreamers or children of undocumented immigrants. Everybody is employing them everywhere in blue and red states, and they are a part of the economy. Let's keep going. All right. The reality is people are coming undocumented because the businesses need the people, but the government is not giving them the visas to do it in the right way. He further explained, if I'm opening a Spanish restaurant, and I want to bring five people from Spain to help me make paella, give me a way to do that. We would cut undocumented immigration by 75% overnight if we were more in the business of creating true immigration systems that benefit America. All right. So this is what we're going to be talking about today, because basically in that interview, he called for more of a efficient immigration system, explaining that businesses often need specialized workers, like those he would hire from Spain, as he mentioned in the article. All right. So I have a guest joining me today. Her name is Sarah Arendt, and she has an inspiring story. Her journey began in high-pressure nursing, including the ICU and neuro-renal units. However, in 2014, she transitioned to construction, where she found her passion. She is now a leader in the field and empowers her team and clients with education, transparency, and successful project execution. All right. Thank you for joining me, Sarah. Welcome to the show. Thank you, Kelly. It's a pleasure to be here. Yeah. Yeah. Let's just dive in it. Okay. So we're going to touch on the topic of immigration reform and how both the construction industry and the broader workforce are impacted. All right. So let me just start with the first question. How would immigration reform benefit both blue and red states economically? So I think there's a lot to this, right? It's become so politicized that we're not thinking about how does it actually help the real people? Unemployment nationally is at 4%. There are a lot of immigrants that are currently working in the system illegally. They're talking about bringing more work. We want to bring more back to this country, right? Economics is a matter of how much output you can put. If you aren't printing money and you're trying to increase your economy, you have to increase productivity. You have to do that. Well, you can't currently do that without people. So we want to increase our productivity. And we're going to talk about bringing people back here. But with a 4% unemployment rate, there's not enough workers in the United States to bring other plants in and bring manufacturing back to the United States. And so I think bringing back manufacturing and different things to the United States, you're going to need more labor to come in. I also think that whatever state you're in, I think people are very unaware of how much of the economy and how many people are actually working in these jobs already. There's a lot of people working currently in the system and what it does economically. So typically people who are working that don't have papers, they don't have a huge incentive to pay taxes. Some of these people are paying taxes. Right, they are. I'm not going to say that all of them are, but some of them are not paying taxes. Some of them are getting paid cash under the table and they're not because they don't want to sign up for the W-2 because many people don't know this. But when you sign those papers, you're attesting that you're a U.S., you're here to be able to work in the U.S. So just signing those papers, saying that you're breaking the law if you aren't actually here legally. Gotcha. They not only know this, but the companies that hire them as well are aware of this. Some of the companies don't know. Well, I'm saying the paying under the table. I don't want to jump too far ahead, but I want to make sure that I stated that too, that it's a game being played on both sides, right? It is a game being played on both sides, for sure. I think when you have more people that can work, you have more ability to innovate. Right. Absolutely. Okay. So then let's talk about the policymakers and the shift or responsibility. Do you think in your opinion that policymakers are shifting the responsibilities to the immigrants instead of addressing the root issues within the immigration system? So I've been thinking about this for a while here, and I really think it's a chicken and egg situation. Okay. Because you have a border situation where because of how people cross the border, and we'll get into that in a second here, by creating a system where you have people here legally without stopping the border and creating a path for people to come from their countries to here in a safe way, without stopping things currently at the border and then creating that, are you actually creating more of a draw for people to come illegally and then become here legally? So is it better to ship people out and then create that strong border and then create immigration reform? Or is it better to create the immigration reform and be humanitarian and then create and set a date and then try and deal with the people that are trying to come? I'm not sure that there's a really clear cut, which I think is some of the struggle that they're having in government right now. It's like, how do you deal with the people who are a part of our economy, who are part of our families? Because the reality is, there are people here because you can't just come to this country illegally, marry a US citizen and get papers. It's not possible. So these people are crossing the border. And so I think that without, I can't really answer, are they just blaming people? For sure there's a draw. For sure that a lot of these people are coming from situations where the risk of getting deported to their country is way less than the risk of staying in their country. So they're like, you know what, I'll just risk breaking the law in this country. I might get deported versus being here in our country. So yeah, I don't think we should be blaming the people who are coming here. So like this whole, I think both sides have a little bit of wrong in how we're handling it as far as just being pitted against each other. Because the reality is we all need this fixed. I agree. As far as you know, there needs to be some type of resolve, some type of resolution. Some sort of permanent fix to this. Permanent. Absolutely. A permanent fix, not a band-aid that's going to, yeah. Let's get a little bit into your industry. Okay. So you're in construction. All right. So from your experience, how does the construction industry rely on immigrant labor? From your experience, how does the construction industry rely on immigrant labor? There is so much immigrant labor in the construction industry. I would say close to 90 to 95% of roofing labor in many, many states is illegal. Whoa, hold on, hold on, hold on. 90 to 95? Yes. We have laborers that are working as subcontractors where I have gone to immigration attorneys and said, I want to bring this skilled labor, which I cannot find in the U.S. and I came from another country and get, because they install roofs differently in other countries. They are here in the U.S. They are working as subcontractors for me. They got their skills elsewhere. Can I sponsor them? There is no opportunity to sponsor someone who is currently working in the U.S. And there's no way for me to go to another country to get the labor that I need. Right. Wow. Wow, wow, wow. There's literally no path. There's no path for me as a business owner to make it right by any of these people. There's no opportunity. Wow. And for that to be the case with 90 to 95% of it being populated in the roofing industry. So how would reform impact this sector, the industry sector? How would it impact if there was a level of reform? I guess you wouldn't have to have, you wouldn't need a sponsor or wouldn't need to sponsor someone, or would that be an avenue? I think sponsorship is probably going to be a key part of how you do it. Because if you can allow businesses, I would sponsor them. I would sponsor this labor that I want to bring in. Then you can bring them in, you can teach them the culture, you can teach them. Because I think some of the concern from some of the more red states is that we're going to just get this influx of people who don't have the same values, who don't believe the same things. Because let's be real, in some of these countries that they're coming from, they don't pay taxes. It's normal for corruption in the government. It's normal to have to do different things to function in that environment that are not accepted here in the US. And if you don't have a path for teaching people that as a part of your immigration, they're going to just come here and act like they're a part of their country here in your country, and it is going to destabilize the country. These are real people. Sometimes there are companies that don't have these roofers listed on our comp policies. My uncle was a doctor. We'd have roofers all the time that would fall off the roof. And the boss would say, nope, they don't work for me. No one to cover medical bills. And so you would have people all the time that would do things like this because they're not documented. We have another employee who works for me as my household manager. And she's like, yeah, when I first came to this country, I was illegal. And people wouldn't pay us because we didn't have papers. And she's like, and it wasn't Americans that were doing this. It was other illegal people who were doing this. Interesting. And I say interesting because it's like people coming from the same family, like you know better. So why are you doing to me? You know what I'm saying? Yeah, it's wild because it's wild. Wow. Wow. These are things that many of us outside of certain industries, we don't know about. We know what we see on the news. Now me, of course, I know that there's a lot more besides what they show on the news. There's a lot more to that I don't know. I only have my perspective. You also have your experience in your industry. And that's why I'm doing this interview with you now because it's to get behind the scenes. It's to talk to people who are actually experiencing these types of situations. It may not be every situation, but you have your experience. And I think it's important to bring those conversations to the forefront as well, not just what is shown in mass media. Well, I think it's also important to note that it's not just the construction side of things. My husband is Latino. My husband's Latino. And when he first came here, when we first started dating, we've been together for 18 years. When we first started dating, he was illegal. And so I've watched him go from being illegal to being legal. And I've watched what that has done for him paying taxes, for him obeying speed limits, for him like he now is like, no, I'm going to pay my taxes and I'm going to do things the right way. And it's going to like, I'm going to do this because, and I was talking to our household manager about the same thing. And she said, Oh, for sure. When you have papers, you act very differently than you do when you do not have papers. There's no risk when you don't have papers, right? When you have papers, you're risking all of that. Okay. All right. Let's keep going. Let's keep going. So I was going to ask how the construction industry can better support and integrate immigrant workers within its workforce. But it sounds like we touched on that already. When you gave the example about sponsorship, are there any other ways? But maybe there isn't because I remember you said there is no pathway and that's because the way that the system is currently set up or the lack thereof, there's really not a pathway. There is currently not a pathway. I've spoken to immigration attorneys, like I said, and I asked, you know, is there a way? And they said not to get the kind of labor that you need. And the other thing that I think is interesting, that article that referenced, and I think from talking to immigration attorneys, he said, there's not a path for me. I don't even think that what he's looking for would be qualified for the type of visas that are even out there. Not only that, but it would also, if you do qualify, just going to the Department of Labor and Industry and getting a certification takes a year. So you go to the Department of Labor and Industry. Now you have to post, takes another six months. You can't hire a U.S. citizen. Now you start the process of bringing a person in that can take another two to three years. So you're talking a length of time that could take three, four years to fill a position. Wow. So like, it's not like, even if you go say, I need this highly skilled worker, how fast are things changing? You might need a highly skilled worker today that in our, our mark, our economy, by the time you get that person here in three years, that job is no longer a job you need. Right. Let's talk about cost. Okay. How do immigration policies and workforce shortages affect the timelines and cost of construction projects? Or let me rephrase that. Do immigration policies and workforce shortages affect the timelines and cost of construction projects? I would say they do not, unless they're going to actually start deporting laborers. So I, and I've heard different things throughout the country. I've heard different things from different people about what's going on in different parts of the country. I've heard of Americans being pulled over and saying, I'm an American citizen and being told, I need your passport to show. And I think that was in New York and the flip side here locally, where they've gone into a, they went into a carwash, which that's another area that has a lot illegal immigrant workforce, carwash washes. So some of the big, big sectors, hospitality, food service, car washes, construction. Those are some really big industries where you will often get laborers that will come in, think dishwashers, think behind the scenes, think. And so when people are like, well, what about this illegal immigrant force taking my job? Yes. I don't know of too many parents that are sitting down with their kid and saying, okay, my dream is for you to be a roofer, to climb around on roofs and spend 12 to 13 hours a day nailing shingles in the sun. Right. I don't know of too many people, parents who are like, I want you to go work in hospitality. And so I don't really think that these are the jobs that most of the jobs that are being filled by the labor force that's here illegally currently are taking jobs that Americans are going to want their kids to go into or that Americans want to go into. I don't think, I think they're kind of separate spaces and spaces that frankly, we need to do the things that we want our kids to do. Right. We need to, we need people that will bus tables at restaurants and, and make, you know, for the restaurant owner or the restaurant owner. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that's one thing that, you know, I've heard for years is that a lot of these cases involve jobs, um, that the average American would not want. And that's why the jobs are open or are available or the last pick, I guess you can say, um, for example, and I'm not, don't get me wrong. I am not in any way demeaning someone who has a dishwasher job. Okay. Wash toilets. There's nothing against nothing. I mean, I start younger. I'm starting off working at restaurants. You're going to clean the bathrooms. You're going to have the kitchen. You're going to, you know what I'm saying? Even though that wasn't your main job on the job title, but that comes with the job, right? Correct. So in no way demeaning any of that, but what I'm saying is that if a person can pick and choose and they have options, they more than likely won't pick something like that. If they have an option versus a person coming over here for whatever reason, safety, better opportunities, whatever the reason, right. They're going to take that job because they have a, they have a, their objective is totally different. Right. A hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For them, that job where they're making and they can provide food for their family and they're not living in extreme poverty. That's a dream job for them. Absolutely. Maybe some of us needed, I was cleaning the toilet yesterday and I was like, okay, cause so I'm the CEO of our company and we had some scrub, some stuff in the toilet. I'm like, I'm going to just clean this toilet. Cause I got, I'm the one that can figure out how to do this. Yeah. We all need to be able to be that humble. Right. And, and yet how many people really want, you know, if they've been here for a couple of generations, how many people are going to want their kids to be there? I mean, that's not, that's not where we want our kids typically to be. So, right, right. And we're only, I'm only making this point because as we said, a lot of businesses really depend on undocumented workers, as you said, in your industry, 90 to 95%. In the, yeah. On the roofing side of it, right. Yes. And in different trades, it's different. You know, you have very varying amounts. That's the highest level. You named car washes, you named food, definitely the food industry. Food service. Right. Yeah. The food service and hospitality. Yeah. Yeah. So the other place that I didn't mention is agriculture. There's a ton. Oh, absolutely. Agriculture for sure. Sure. There's a ton in agriculture. Yeah. Yes. Yes. And we, we need all of the above. We, as in the nation. Of course we need all of the above. I mean, who's going to like pick our strawberries. I mean, my, I have some, my husband's uncle picks strawberries in California. Like we need, we need people that are going to pick our strawberries and we need people who are going to make sure our fruit looks great coming from the store. And right. Yeah. Let's talk about businesses overall. Do you have any theory or idea of, you know, what ways does the current immigration system fail businesses? Period. I think one of the flip sides. So people think unemployment, we want the unemployment number really low. And I don't think that as a business owner, she want the unemployment number, not extremely high because then our, our whole economy is not in a good place, but I want the unemployment number a little bit higher than it is currently. Why do you say that? Because you can have competition for jobs within a space. So I have a friend that is, owns a printer, a printing like facility paying $95,000 a year for an office manager. And hasn't been getting anybody in our current state to show up for work. Wait. Yeah. So he's looking for someone who's an, it's a high level position. It's, it's got skills. So they got to be able to do bookkeeping and it's, they're doing some things in the, in the printing facility. It's like a $90,000 a year job and he's not getting any people, anybody to show up. Wow. So when you have unemployment rates that are so high, because you understand as a business, and this is something I struggled with as a business owner, because I've got a really big heart. So I want to help everybody. And at the end of the day, I actually have to be responsible for the productivity of the business, or I'm going to have to lay people off. And so you need to be able to balance the productivity. And if you've got employee, if employees who aren't being productive when they're showing up to work, because they're just told that they need to be a warm body because there's, there's demand everywhere for them. A little bit of this, less of a, you know, we don't need to work real hard at this. Cause I can just get a good job and don't have to work hard at it, which then impacts the full economy when you are produced. So how do you think that, that runs into, um, a failing in, uh, with immigration or does that play a part? The other thing is you can't grow. If your unemployment rate is two or 3%, how am I going to get the labor that in the staffing that I need to be able to grow? We've been in growth mode. You know, our business has done, you know, seven, eight figures. There's a certain point where you can't go if you can't get the labor. So you have to have labor to grow. You have to have labor to create, to innovate. You have to have labor to create. So if you don't have enough labor to come in the economy, and it's just going to push down the ability for you guys for growth to happen. All right. So let's, let's keep going. How do you think that immigration reform connects to the overall strength of the U S economy? You can't have a strong economy if you're going to deport. So currently the unemployment rate is 4%, which is 6.8 million people. And the estimates are anywhere between 13 and 15 million illegal immigrants here in the United States. So if you're going to go around deporting all of those people, you are going to have a, you're going to have major problems with businesses going out of business, left, right, and center, and no ability to innovate or bring in new things, which we'd like, obviously we want to grow as an economy. So in order to grow the economy, you have to have labor. So you are going So at some point they're going to have to bring labor in, or they're not going to be able to do these things that they have planned. I don't think that what the things that Trump is talking about, and some of these people are talking about doing, if they don't fix the immigration, it's not going to be humanly possible to do what they're talking about doing. And when you say do what they're talking, what are you referring to? They're trying to bring businesses back to the U S. They're trying to bring manufacturers, they're talking about bringing manufacturing back, and they're talking about doing all these things. And I don't think without some sort of solution to this immigration problem, I don't think you're going to be able to do what they're talking about doing, because you don't have the labor currently in the United States to be able to do what they're talking about doing, because those plants are going to be in the same plant situation that my friend is. Paying way too much to make it economically, the tariffs aren't going to matter because you're not going to have enough margin there. If you don't have the labor to make it make sense, if you can't produce, if you cannot produce, why are you bringing the manufacturing back to the U S? You have to have labor in order to be able to produce. And I also think that by solving the immigration problem, you solve some of the things that are happening at the border. Very few people understand what it takes to cross the border, unless you have a visa that you're coming into the U S on an airplane. If you are actually physically crossing the border, and I can't really speak to the northern border because I don't know of anybody who's crossed the northern border. I can speak to the border because I know of people who crossed the southern border. So the process to cross the southern border, the border is controlled by gangs. So you have to pay off the gangs in order to cross their territory. And the payoff, the way that that payoff happens, it can happen in a couple of ways. It can happen by, so there's a down payment that's paid by somebody, often somebody who's here in the U S that wants to bring their family member here, or it's by carrying them, carrying drugs across the border. And they cross the border and then they're asked for ransom and they call someone here in the U S who will then wire money. They are not released until that money is paid. And then they're released. The other way that it happens is they cross the border. And I'm sure there's other ways. These are the only two, these are a couple of ways that I know that it's happening, but they will pay down payment. They will cross the border. And then for years, they will be paying the gang a thousand dollars. And I've been told that the rates currently are somewhere between 30 and $35,000 to cross the border. Okay. I got to run it back. Yes. And I'm smiling because this is just information that I'm just, I was today years old when I found this out. So I was shocked until I started hearing it from multiple people. Yeah. And, and, and is this, is this through your knowledge because of your industry or because of your spouse or how let's just say I have firsthand knowledge and I've watched it. Okay. All right. There you go. Okay. So you mentioned that there's a down payment or let me go back to where you said they're held in sort of a, did you say ransom? Was that the word? It's like a ransom. Yeah. Well, so when they're at the border, there's a person that they give the name of. Okay. And then that person, they call that person. And if you don't answer the phone, you're just, you're held. Oh, held at the border. Well, you're held just across the border. They are not going to release you until you are paid. Okay. I didn't ask too many questions after I was like, Oh my gosh. Like, I don't really want to know how dark this goes, but that's, that is what it is when it crosses the border. So from your knowledge and speaking to where you're just giving an example of what you know about the Southern border, there's payment involved. There's payment involved as payment to gangs to cross the border. And it often includes them actually carrying drugs across the border as well. So they're trafficking, they're carrying drugs across the border. If they get caught, then it's just on them. Then the gang takes no responsibility and they're crossing the board. And then there's payments that are made. And those, some of those payments are being made for years. Well, 35,000. And if you're getting a job and you're getting paid under the table and all the things that come with that, I'd imagine it would take years. Take years. Yeah. Wow. Wow. Okay. So then that definitely is an eye opener in regards to the question that I asked, you know, as far as how would immigration reform connect the overall strength to the U S economy, as you mentioned, to run that back to is that to bring jobs back to the United States, you need a labor force. You need a workforce and the current workforce that we have, it's not going to happen. The other piece is we need a workforce that can function. How many of these people are getting trauma and how they're crossing the border? How many of these people are getting like are actually like, and we're not even to talk about the children who are left in many of these countries. I know so many people who have left their children just to provide them food on the table. Like if I could go in and say, Hey, I want to bring it. I want to bring people here. I want to be able to bring their children here. We'll keep families together. There's it's, there's so much to this that is that could be solved by just creating a legal pathway, creating a legal pathway. If you created a legal pathway, there's no incentive for the gangs to be able to get, make money. You take away from their ability to make money. If you can create a legal pathway, certainly you have to shut the borders in order to be able to create the legal pathway, but then you got to create the legal pathway because we need this labor. So it's not just one sided where we hear things about, Oh, um, they're bringing drugs into the country. But in addition to that, we actually, the nation actually heavily depends on immigrants to, to function in different workforce industries that are needed for this country that are necessary for this country. So there's a huge benefit to fix the system, to have some type of and legal pathway for all. Right, right, right. The last question I was going to ask was why would creating a true immigration system better serve America's interests. But I think that we touched on, on that a lot, you know, the benefit. So for me, it's going to be interesting to see how this plays out, you know, will there be a level of immigration reform, something put in place that we have never seen as a nation, especially if we're talking about bringing jobs in industries back to the United States, well, then what is the plan?