Xochitl Trejo called her Altadena home – which she bought in 2003 after immigrating from Mexico – her “American Dream.”
It held everything from Trejo’s son’s prized U.S. Marines service awards, to cherished memories of her late husband, who died in 2007 after a battle with cancer, years after buying the housefor $500,000 together. Trejo said the couple always dreamed of living in Altadena – a charming community where they could smell the San Gabriel Mountains, and strangers would wave and smile at them on the street.
But that dream swiftly turned to ashes on Jan. 8, 2025, when the Eaton fire, which ignited a day earlier, destroyed her home in one of the worst fire disasters in California history. Like the thousands affected, the fire forced Trejo and her son to evacuate their home, taking with them only the essentials as they fled for safety.
“All your sacrifices, your time, all the hard work – took seconds to disappear just like that,” she said.
Trejo, who now lives in a rental with her son, is committed to rebuilding her dream home in “irreplaceable” Altadena – a town she called a “beautiful, working Latino community” that takes pride in its identity. But she said she is struggling to get any of the work started – with contractors telling her their rates have increased significantly, amid increased immigration enforcement weeding out parts of the workforce.
Many factors have impacted the post-Eaton fire rebuild in the burn zone, ranging from a slow-moving permitting process, economic uncertainty, underinsurance issues and the entry of outside investors. Immigration enforcement has also complicated the picture.
Ramped-up U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity has rocked Southern California, especially in Los Angeles County, since early June, as federal immigration officers carry out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
The raids have slowed rebuilding in Eaton fire-damaged areas, many Altadena residents and immigration advocates said, as workers face heightened fears of detention regardless of status.
Back in June, after ICE showed up at a burned lot in Altadena as construction workers built, a “climate of fear” was created among the heavily-immigrant day laborer community, said real estate developer Brock Harris, whose company managed that construction lot.
Several workers were a no-show the next day, Harris said, and as the summer went on, some contractors had even begun camouflaging their construction sites to avoid any ICE activity.
“That one visit was enough to just put a chill in everyone,” Harris said. “Any construction site has become a target.”
The raids have impacted neighboring Pasadena, officials said. In another incident in June, ICE agents detained six construction workers at a Pasadena bus stop who, according to Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo, were on the way to help with rebuilding efforts.
The raids are also driving up the costs of rebuilding homes lost in the fire, according to residents like Trejo – making it more difficult for them to return to an area that was already pricing its residents out. The average price for a home in Altadena has increased by more than $300,000 in six years, according to Zillow’s Home Value Index.
The average home price in Altadena before the fires was nearly $1.3 million — higher than the L.A. County average, which sat around $911,000. Altadena’s current average home price is around $1.1 million, while the L.A. County average is about $871,000 range, according to Zillow.
Trejo said that, even as a U.S. citizen who immigrated from Mexico when she was 13, she fears what ICE could do solely based on her Latina appearance.
“At this point, we’re even scared to just go to the store because we don’t know what could happen,” she said. “They just get taken — without any questions asked whatsoever.”
An ICE spokesperson said by email that “President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem are putting the American people first, by removing ‘illegal aliens’ who pose a threat to our communities… They violate federal immigration laws and are subject to removal when apprehended. ICE remains committed to enforcing immigration laws and ensuring the integrity of the nation’s borders.”
In August, border czar Tom Homan said federal officials would “ramp up” immigration enforcement actions in so-called sanctuary cities across the country, calling out Los Angeles. In September, the nation’s highest court lifted restrictions for federal agents to conduct sweeping immigration operations in and around L.A.
And in mid-October, L.A. County declared a state of emergency over the increasing raids and the impact on thousands of immigrant families, with only county supervisor Kathryn Barger – who represents Altadena – opposing.
L.A. County has “no authority” over federal immigration raids, a spokesperson for Barger said in a statement, but the nation is “long overdue for meaningful immigration reform.”
“We need immigration policies and systems that are fair, pragmatic, and support individuals who want to work legally and contribute to their communities — especially those helping rebuild after disasters like the Eaton Fire,” the statement said.
Many immigrant rights advocates are pushing for better rights and protections for what they called the “most vulnerable.”
Community leaders and advocates have argued that the detentions are inhumane – and that ICE is racially profiling immigrants, ignoring their rights to due process and, in some cases, detaining people who are in the U.S. legally or without criminal records.
Rep. Judy Chu (CA-28), who represents Altadena and has spoken out repeatedly against ICE activities, said that it “affects everyone, not just immigrants,” from construction workers to local businesses and residents.
“As Altadena continues to recover from the devastating Eaton Fire, Trump’s ICE raids are undermining our ability to rebuild and heal. Workers who are helping rebuild Altadena are too afraid to show up to their job sites or even leave their homes,” Chu said by email. “At a time when we need unity and healing, this cruelty is inflicting more pain and setting our community back. And it’s not just happening in Altadena. These raids are hurting families and raising costs across the country.”
Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, agreed that the impact runs deep. He and labor leaders condemned the Supreme Court’s ruling, saying on social media that it allows and expands “open season on day laborers.”
“There is fear – not just for undocumented people, but also the (home) owners,” he said. “It’s impossible to rebuild L.A. without migrant labor.”
ICE’s impact on the construction industry specifically is also being felt, research shows.
Undocumented immigrants make up 40% to 50% of the construction workforce in California – bigger than the national average, due to the state’s large undocumented population, said Clement Bohr, an economist for the UCLA Anderson Forecast. General fear – rather than deportations themselves – is a “more powerful force” in removing these workers from the job market, he noted.
Other workers typically do not fill open construction jobs – citing the fact that they are “tough, uncomfortable jobs, where you’re out working in the heat… It’s not something you can just easily pick up to do, nor is it something most workers want to do.”
With the loss of construction workers, housing projects slow down or are halted altogether, and costs go up, Bohr said.
“It’s hard to imagine a set of policies at the federal level – it’s almost as if they’re tailor-made to raise the cost of construction,” he said.
Others who work in the construction industry agreed that Trump-era tariffs are likely contributing to the rising price of materials, as manufacturers who import steel, lumber and electrical components pass increased costs on to consumers. The Trump administration implemented a 50% tariff on steel and a 10% tariff on softwood lumber.
Both the homeowners negotiating with insurance and contracting companies, and the contractors themselves, are in a similar position — as labor supply decreases due to ICE fears and projects get delayed amid rising material costs, experts said.
Perhaps feeling the most impact are construction workers, many of them immigrants, themselves. Immigrants make up 1 in 4 workers in the industry, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
Alex, who asked to be identified by only his first name out of immigration concerns, is a construction worker who has been part of the rebuilding Altadena efforts. He’s helped rebuild two homes so far, with many more expected, he said.
Alex is among many Southern California Latino construction workers who say they’ve noticed a sizable shift in workforce numbers, since ICE activity increased in size and force over the last few months.
“There’s been about 20 to 30% less people working,” he said in Spanish in late October. “It’s made the process of building feel longer than normal.”
On top of having to work longer hours, because of fewer day laborers and workers available, Alex said the atmosphere has changed as well. He has frequently seen what he believed to be ICE agents in different areas of Altadena, as he and others were working.
“You can’t be comfortable working because you’re always looking over your shoulder, worried about immigration,” he said.
“A lot of workers, myself included, don’t feel comfortable coming to work every day, but we also have bills to pay,” Alex said. “We can’t be sitting at home, not working.”
Altadena is ‘not for sale’
As of early November, Altadena homeowner Xochitl Trejo’s home still resembled an empty lot, and she has not begun to rebuild.
She called her initial contractors “almost impossible” to work with, due to steep costs. Rebuilding her destroyed home went from $350 per square foot in February, to as much as $500 per square foot over the summer, she said. Contractors have also estimated rebuilding could take between six to eight months, likely longer, and she hasn’t yet found anyone she can afford.
Other contractors have warned Trejo that their construction teams have not been showing up to work due to fear of immigration enforcement.
While Trejo’s home insurance helps her pay for her temporary rental, it will not match rising costs for rebuilding, she said, and she is anxious to continue the process. She worked three jobs to pay the mortgage on her home.
“I need to start as soon as possible – but, at the same time, I’m not getting anyone that is willing to take the project,” she said. “It’s one after another – so many obstacles. We feel that it’s going to get worse, once we all can start doing our rebuilds.”
Noticing more lots going for sale in Altadena, Trejo called the situation “heartbreaking.”
“Most of these lots are going on the market because either they already know they’re not going to be able to afford to rebuild, or there are people that don’t want to go through all of this,” she said.
With the price of Altadena homes steadily increasing, even before the fires, residents like Trejo have worried that the town could lose its socioeconomic and racial diversity entirely, as families struggle to rebuild – an issue compounded by rising construction costs.
“It’s hurtful the way we used to see the U.S. as an opportunity for us to accomplish our ‘American Dream’ is pretty much gone, and not only for us, but for this new generation, too,” Trejo said. “To be able to buy a house in California is just almost impossible.”
Lining Trejo’s street are signs in yards reading “Altadena is not for sale” – a movement aiming to protect community members from being priced out of the area, said Katie Clark, a founder of the Altadena Tenants Union, a coalition of renters that formed in the wake of the Eaton fire.
“‘Altadena is not for sale’ is really saying, ‘We want to have the chance to rebuild our town,’” Clark said. “We want to see everybody come home. We want to see families be able to stay, who want to stay.”
With her home’s construction timeline up in the air, Trejo said one thing is keeping her going — the thought of someday being able to return to her beloved Altadena.
“I made a promise (to my husband) that I was going to do whatever it took, to provide a roof over my son’s head,” she said. “That’s my way to be able to cope…. I know it’s not gonna be the same. I know all the memories we have built (are) gone, but as I told my son, it’s gonna be time for us to start building new memories and heal through the years. And I still see it as beautiful.’”
Alexandra Crosnoe was the Southern California News Group’s Daily Bruin Alumni Network intern/fellow.
Staff writer Allyson Vergara and freelance writer Victoria Ivie contributed to this report.