Vincent Scardina, a Trump voter in Florida, says his business is struggling after losing a third of his workforce to ICE raids.
Six employees at Scardina’s small roofing company in Lower Key West, were detained by immigration officials on their way to work last month. They were later transported by police to a detention center for deportation, according to NBC6.
“Well, you know, you get to know these guys, you become their friends, just not an employer, but a friend, and you see what happens to their family. It’s… It’s quite a shock,” Scardina said.
Scardina voted for Trump in the 2024 presidential election because he agreed with his immigration polices and thought the administration was going to focus on deporting violent criminals.
Now, Scardina says he has “a little bit” of “buyer’s remorse.”
“What happened here? This situation is just totally just blatantly not at all what they said it was,” he said, adding that other small businesses were forced to shut down after losing staff to ICE raids.
“It’s not just happening to me. I mean, it’s happening across the board to several contractors,” he said. “I know they’re all being hit by this hard. I know of one landscaper that lost nine or 10 of his whole crew he had and he’s just totally out of business all of a sudden, just like that.”
Scardina fears his business will be next because it is “going to be really hard to replace” the workers he lost.
“We’re not able in Key West to just replace people as easily as, say, a big city, very limited people to pull from, and then you would have to train them, and that takes sometimes years,” he said.
Meanwhile, Regilucia Smith, the attorney for the men, who are all from Nicaragua, said they all had valid work permits and five of them have pending asylum applications.
“They are legally here. They have an authorization to stay,” Smith told NBC6. “Valid work permit, not even close to be expired… again, no criminal records, not here, not in Nicaragua.”
The men’s co-workers at Scardina’s roofing business are also criticizing the move to deport the men.
“It was pretty obvious from the beginning that they were pulled over simply because they were six Latino men in a work truck,” said Virgil Scardina. “Our business is struggling. You know, make no mistake. This has the potential to cause us some significant problems.”
“But I still get to go home and give my child a hug at night. These guys do not, and they don’t deserve that,” he added.
