Benny Melendez, a small construction company owner in South Texas, supported President Donald Trump in the 2024 election. However, since Trump’s return to the White House, Melendez has faced increasing challenges in managing his business. He reports that immigration officers have detained his workers at job sites and while driving company vehicles. Since early 2025, over ten of his employees have been deported.
These difficulties over the past 18 months have led Melendez to withdraw his support for Trump and the Republican Party, instead choosing to support Democrat state Rep. James Talarico in the upcoming U.S. Senate election.
“How can we continue voting for someone that is targeting our community?” Melendez expressed. “There’s no way possible we’re going to support that. No way.”
Melendez’s sentiments are shared by others. According to a survey by the U.S. Hispanic Business Council, one in five Hispanic business owners in Texas reported having an employee deported within the past year. Seven in ten respondents indicated that their businesses had been affected by Trump’s tariffs. In this survey, Talarico leads by seven points over Attorney General Ken Paxton, the GOP nominee, despite many respondents identifying as Republican. Nearly a quarter of those who supported Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican primary now plan to back Talarico, while over half still support Paxton.
The survey highlights Paxton’s potential vulnerability within the Texas Hispanic business community, amid wider indications of a shift against him among Hispanic voters nationally due to Trump’s immigration policies and economic uncertainties. Conducted from June 2 to 15, the survey included 1,012 Texas-based USHBC members from various sectors such as construction, food services, retail, and manufacturing.
Business owners cite the fear and disruption caused by the deportation efforts as key reasons for turning away from Trump and toward Talarico. Javier Palomarez, president and CEO of USHBC, noted, “The fear factor that it creates, the disruption that it creates, the environment that it creates, is debilitating. If you’ve got a small business of 10 people or so, and you get even one person deported, you can imagine what that does to the morale of that business unit and to the fear of the business owner.”
Meanwhile, Paxton continues his hardline stance on immigration, promoting his support for a contentious Texas immigration law and challenging publicly funded legal defense for undocumented immigrants.
The Texas Senate race is anticipated to be one of the most closely watched and expensive in the nation. Early polls show a tight race between Paxton and Talarico. A New York Times/Siena poll from last month indicates a tie between the two, with Talarico leading by 32 points among Hispanic voters. In 2024, Trump won Texas Latinos by 10 points.
Paxton spokesperson Madison Cercy stated that Hispanic voters desire “lower taxes, less regulation, affordable energy, and a strong economy.” Cercy added, “Ken Paxton has a proven record of fighting for those priorities, while James Talarico has consistently opposed the tax-cutting policies that help Texans thrive, declares that ‘God is non-binary,’ and said that there are ‘six biological sexes.’ Texans deserve to hear the truth about Talarico’s radical record and the damage his agenda would do to families and businesses across our state. Once they do, it will kill Talacreepo’s campaign for their vote.”
Talarico, in his statement, reached out to Hispanic voters: “We should be supporting Hispanic small businesses — not crushing them under the weight of high costs and failed immigration policies,” he said. “Here’s my message to Hispanic communities across Texas: if you feel like you’ve been conned, if you feel like you’ve been let down by both political parties, if you feel like politicians aren’t doing anything to lower your costs or fix this broken immigration system — you’ve got a place in this campaign.”
In South Texas, business owners cite immigration enforcement as a primary reason for their shift away from the GOP. In 2024, Trump capitalized on concerns over Joe Biden’s border policy to secure victories in heavily Latino communities along the U.S.-Mexico border, significantly altering the historically Democratic region. Trump won 14 of 18 border counties, including Starr County, a 90-percent Latino area where Hillary Clinton had previously secured 79 percent of the vote in 2016, and which hadn’t supported a Republican since the 1890s.
However, the Trump administration’s interior enforcement policy is now viewed by many as excessive. According to the USHBC poll, 70 percent of respondents had a negative perception of immigration raids, which could potentially jeopardize Republican candidates in those border districts.
“I didn’t like what Biden was doing here on the border,” Melendez said. “But now with Trump, it’s all the opposite, 180 degree change. He doesn’t let us work. He’s taking the best we have.”
Earlier this year, construction executives in South Texas raised concerns about immigration enforcement. Some trade association leaders met with officials in the White House and Congress to discuss these issues in February.
After a brief lull, immigration enforcement at worksites ramped up again last month. Melendez reports that immigration officers are once more detaining workers at construction sites and pulling over vehicles with work equipment like ladders. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment on this characterization of enforcement.
“It just seems now more than ever, if you’re brown, they’re gonna stop you,” said Mario Guerrero, a three-time Trump voter who leads the South Texas Builders Association. “And I know that sounds really racist, but it’s what we’re facing, man.”
Local media across the state are filled with stories of the immigration crackdown: An undocumented man in Houston shot and killed by an ICE officer; a mariachi musician in San Antonio detained after playing at a birthday party; a Catholic nun in McAllen detained while walking to Sunday Mass.
Even some Republican officials have criticized these actions. “As I have repeatedly said, our immigration enforcement should target violent criminals,” GOP Rep. Monica de la Cruz, who represents a battleground district in the Rio Grande Valley, wrote on Facebook. “A Catholic nun on her way to church is not a threat to our community.”
A South Texas construction company owner, who wished to remain anonymous, said the nun’s arrest was “the final nail in the coffin” for many Hispanics who had supported Republicans.
“We’re pissed off at the current administration. Everybody’s pissed off down here in South Texas,” said the construction executive, emphasizing that most Hispanics in the area are Catholic. “Remember, we’re conservative, we’re not far left. We’re in the middle, conservative Latinos in South Texas. It doesn’t make sense.”
Guerrero, who leads a trade group with more than 160 members across South Texas, argued that deportations do not create jobs for American workers. “When people say, ‘Why don’t you hire American citizens to do foundation or to do concrete?’ I’m like, ‘Dude, tell me what f—ing United States citizen is gonna want to go and pour concrete at 103 degrees down here in the valley,’” he said.
Palomarez agreed with this view.
“This notion that these immigrants are taking American jobs is bullshit,” said Palomarez. “The districts in South Texas that swung decidedly Republican are paying the price, because that fear-mongering has come home to roost. And now you don’t have employees, or enough employees, to get that project done.”
