The owner of a home building company based out of Weslaco said he’s losing thousands of dollars per day as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sweep up his employees, and others aren’t showing up for work.

“There's a big fear in the community in our workers, they don't want to come to work,” BM3 Construction owner Benny Melendez said. “They need the work, and we need their working hands.”

Melendez was among the dozens of people in attendance at a Wednesday town hall in Pharr hosted by the South Texas Builders Association. Elected officials and other builders were in attendance to discuss how the ICE raids have impacted the construction industry in the Rio Grande Valley. 

ICE agents have targeted construction sites, leading to several delayed projects. 

Melendez said he’s had to turn down a construction bud because five other projects are on pause. 

“Which means they're going to charge more, and of course the consumer is going to pay the price at the end,” Melendez said.

Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez said after the town hall that revenue is also being affected by the raids. 

“We're down 21 to 22% on airport boarding, bridge crossings, sales tax revenues,” Cortez said. 

Cortez said the deportations have played a role in that drop, as well as the fear for immigrants of being out in public.

Channel 5 News spoke with an undocumented worker who said he and others ran away when ICE agents came to his jobsite last week.

He and the others who made it out haven’t been back to work since.

“If we can't work anymore, there's no choice but to go back,” the man said.

Without immigrants like him, Melendez says there's no choice but to slow down business.

“We cannot build houses without them, we need them,” Melendez said.

Watch the video above for the full story. 

READ ALSO: Valley farmer struggling to find workers amid immigration crack down