The Trump administration has been eliminating some protections that allow more than 300,000 people to live and work in the U.S. under what is known as temporary protected status. Many could face deportation when their status expires.
An estimated 50,000 of them work in the construction industry, concentrated in areas like Texas, Florida and California that are recovering from hurricanes and wildfires and where labor shortages in construction are especially acute.
For decades, administrations routinely renewed temporary protected status, enabling those already residing in the U.S. to remain, because their home countries were ravaged by war or disaster.
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