Finishing the job with a satisfying concrete pour, Raul, a cement worker, felt comfortable cutting his typical 9 to 11 hour workday in half to go to H-E-B for groceries. His family needed him.  

Driving to the store, his eyes darted between the road and the car tailgating behind — a cop car. A wave of dreadful uneasiness hit.

Then, red and blue lights erupted on the road behind him.

Now on the roadside, the cop asked for a license he did not have. In a hurry, the employee called his job to fill in his family on what would soon happen and for them to retrieve the car. 

Father and husband, detained to be deported back to Mexico.

ICE pushes the idea that undocumented immigrants are the opponents. In reality, they are allies; improving communities even under constant risk of removal.

A domino effect of fear strikes the hearts of employed immigrants. The pickup could happen anytime, anywhere, to any immigrant family.

D.G., a student at Caney Creek, reported this story about his coworker. D.G. compares this way of living to the make-believe game, “The Floor is Lava.”

But immigration enforcement isn’t a game. It’s real and it’s right next to you.

Development coming your way

Conroe, once filled with hillbillies and sparsely populated rural land has become a booming housing market.

Partners explains that Conroe offers diverse options in housing size, appealing to the surge of young families and retirees searching for affordable housing.

These benefits are a privilege supported by immigrant employees in construction companies like the one D.G. is in. The Global Statistics reported that as of 2025, undocumented and documented immigrants make up 38% of Texas’s construction sector alone.

A significant portion of Conroe’s improvement is thanks to immigrant labour paving the way for fresh sidewalks, tennis courts and driveways. 

But for unnaturalized workers, frequent crackdowns cement them into hiding. D.G. said that since ICE took his coworker, his boss is weary of going to job sites out of concern that he and his crew will get caught in a raid. He is not alone in his anxiety.

ICE raids have already swept Houston, Dallas, Brownsville, Laredo and San Antonio. Consequently, construction employment in South Texas fell roughly 5% in the third quarter of 2025 — the biggest decline across major sectors according to The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

When contributors to your city are detained, projects get delayed, improvements are shelved, and housing prices creep up. 

The Mix Up

Above all else, intensive immigration enforcement penalizes honest workers who aren’t dangerous, meaning they should be low on ICE’s priority list.

Although ICE likes to make picture perfect lists of the couple really bad eggs they detain, for most, the only crime was coming here illegally.

“Technically you know, we are here illegally,” D.G. said. “We accept that. The vast majority of us don’t commit crimes, we’re not rapists, we’re not drug dealers.”

TRAC Immigration confirmed this in November 2025; around 73% of people held in ICE detention centers have no criminal conviction. Even then, many convicted immigrants only had minor offenses like traffic violations; 1,800 people were deported for these offenses this year alone, which is 43% more than five years ago.

Set in Stone

Although the infrastructure that Texas’s immigrant workforce provides is handy, humans deserve respect beyond their economic contributions.

Foreign born people are still people. President Donald Trump throwing heavy-weight-blanket statements about illegal “aliens” and their “invasion” against the United States stomps them into sub-human beings.

The same people who have families of their own and work diligently, without complaint, to give back to the community they came to in hopes of building a better life. 

To the Conroe residents skidding their sneakers against the new tennis court, the mom of four turning her car’s wheels into a bright grey driveway, and the grandfather walking his dog as its slobber drops down on the sidewalk: Favors should be returned. 

All you need to do is be grateful and show some empathy for your neighbors next door. Step into their heavy-duty-boots and walk in their shoes for a moment.

You’ll find out they are far from martians.