The workers lacked work authorization. For them, the deportation threat was real.

Such cases are a growing problem, immigrant advocates say, with groups that help undocumented workers saying they’ve seen an uptick in complaints, particularly in the construction industry, of employers not paying agreed-upon wages and then, when confronted, threatening to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Such actions, despite being illegal, are adding to a a climate of fear and powerlessness among immigrant workers across the state.

“Employers who want to exploit workers seem to feel like they have the green light to continue exploiting,” said Leela Ramachandran, co-director of the Metrowest Worker Center in Framingham, an advocacy group that helped the workers in the masonry case. “The environment does not carry consequences for their threats.”

Before Trump’s second term, the center handled one to two wage theft cases a month. Now, it receives about seven cases each month, she said.

“There’s no doubt that employers are taking advantage of workers’ fears to get away with not paying wages … and not following the law with respect to workplace injuries,” said Audrey Richardson, managing attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services, a nonprofit organization that provides legal assistance to immigrants and refugees, including on wage theft cases.

Even as many immigrants are scared to speak out, wage theft cases — in which workers allege their employer didn’t pay them enough for work performed — have spiked since the immigration crackdown began in early 2025.

Workers filed 3,384 wage theft complaints to the Massachusetts attorney general’s office from January through May. That’s a roughly 16 percent increase over the same period in 2025 and a 10 percent rise over 2024.

Most complaints filed with the AG’s office by May of this year came from the health care, restaurant, and service industries.

About 7.7 percent of all complaints, or 261, came from the construction industry, one of the industries that employs the most undocumented workers in the state.

In many of these industries, advocates say workers are often paid in cash and have to negotiate with their employer to receive the full agreed-upon amount. In the construction industry, for instance, workers are often paid only at the end of a project, which allows employers to undercount hours and pay below prevailing wages.

Renato, 48, a construction worker who lives in Everett, said he doesn’t know a single person in his industry who hasn’t experienced wage theft.

“But now if anything happens, the first thing that [employers] do to pull threats is call ICE,” he said.

Renato, who is originally from Brazil and requested to only be identified by his first name for fear of retaliation, worked for a decade on building maintenance projects. When the business dissolved, Renato looked through dozens of past invoices and discovered that he was missing a sum of about one paycheck a month for the past 10 years, amounting to $22,000.

Renato confronted his employer in March to request the unpaid funds. Massachusetts law allows workers to demand payment for wage and hour violations up to three years after the violation. Renato could legally sue the employer and – if he won – get triple damages.

The employer refused to pay any of the owed amount, Renato said.

“I can solve this problem with one phone call, just like I did with the other employee,” Renato recalled the employer saying. According to Renato, the employer had regularly boasted about getting a previous worker deported.

“So I just stood up, put the chair back, and walked away,” Renato said.

Renato reported his case to the attorney general’s office, which is investigating. Notifying immigration authorities about a worker who complained about labor rights violations is considered retaliation, according to the attorney general’s office, and is subject to penalties such as fines or jail time.

But the lingering threat continues to burden Renato.

“I can’t sleep,” Renato said. “I have to drink energy drinks to stay awake during the day and at night I cannot sleep.”

Many of the workers who arrive at the Framingham center, also called Casa, allow the organization to contact their employers and negotiate on their behalf, but refrain from filing an official complaint, said Ramachandran.

“Workers have never felt less protected and scared, and the people who usually support them have less capacity,” she said. “It’s a perfect storm.”

The pervasive fear is also reflected in the falling number of wage theft cases workers are taking to Greater Boston Legal Services, Richardson said. Such cases were down by almost 50 percent for 2025 and 2026, compared to the same period in 2024.

Similarly, the Brazilian Worker Center in Allston has seen the number of legal cases it helps workers pursue against employers be cut in half to about 50 per year since Trump returned to office, said André Simões, the center’s workers rights program manager.

Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said in a statement Massachusetts law protects all workers, regardless of immigration status. The office does not request immigration-related information when investigating.

“We do not tolerate employers who retaliate against workers for asserting their rights or reporting violations,” Campbell said.

Employers who don’t play by the rules hurt the entire industry, said Bert Durand, communications director at the North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters.

“If your competition is cheating and cutting 30, 40, or 60 percent off of their labor costs, you’re at a significant disadvantage just by following the rules,” Durand said.

Even business partners can be vulnerable to deportation being used as a weapon.

In another case handled by Ramachandran, a Framingham resident, 25, wanted to disentangle himself from a construction business partner in New York who Ramachandran said was taking company funds for personal use and drugs, including roughly $33,000 the Framingham man said he was owed.

Last year, the man traveled to New York with his wife and baby to return company equipment and demand the missing funds, Ramachandran said. When he arrived at the meeting spot, his former business partner pointed at him and said, according to Ramachandran, “this is the guy I have problems with.”

A squad of ICE agents swarmed the group, shoving the man’s wife and baby and detaining him, according to Ramachandran. Family members, with the help of Casa, paid bond for the man, who is awaiting further immigration proceedings and had no prior criminal record.

“This is highlighting the contradiction of the system … and upends the narrative that ICE is detaining the worst people and making our country safer,” said Ramachandran.

In a statement, an ICE spokesperson said: “ICE does not comment on unverified, anecdotal scenarios. The Trump Administration is utilizing all lawful options to carry out the largest deportation operation in history, just as President Trump promised.”

Maria, 27, a Casa worker whose family works in construction and asked to use only her first name to protect from retaliation, said her brother-in-law went unpaid for six months’ worth of overtime, but didn’t report it for fear of ICE.

“Sometimes I feel sad,” she said in Spanish. “Because we lack papers or documents, we stay silent.”