Vincent Scardina thought he was backing a strong immigration policy when he voted for Donald Trump. Now he’s paying the price.
The Florida roofing contractor was left stunned and emotional after six of his workers—one-third of his entire crew—were detained by ICE during a traffic stop.
“It’s quite a shock,” Scardina told NBC6, fighting back tears. “You get to know these guys, you become their friends—not just an employer but a friend.”
The men, all from Nicaragua, were headed to a job site on May 27 when they were pulled over in the Florida Keys. Monroe County deputies helped ICE take them into custody.
But here’s the twist: according to their attorney, Regilucia Smith, they were here legally.
“They are legally here,” Smith said. “Valid work permit, not even close to expired… again, no criminal records—not here, not in Nicaragua.”
That didn’t stop ICE.
The crackdown followed a push from top Trump adviser Stephen Miller, who reportedly told immigration officials in May to go after everyone in the country illegally—regardless of status or situation.
Now Scardina is left scrambling to find replacements in a region with a tiny labor pool.
“We’re not able… to just replace people as easily as, say, a big city,” he said. “Very limited people to pull from, and then you would have to train them, and that takes sometimes years.”
Three of his workers have already been shipped off to detention centers in Texas and California. The others are still locked up locally, as their lawyer fights to get them released.
Scardina, who still supports some of Trump’s policies, admits this one cuts deep.
“Buyer’s remorse? I don’t know, a little bit,” he said.
His cousin and coworker, Virgil Scardina, put it more bluntly: “I get to go home and hug my kid. These guys don’t. And they don’t deserve that.”
Scardina says other contractors are also getting hit. One local landscaper he knows lost almost his entire crew.
“He’s just totally out of business all of a sudden, just like that.”
Nationwide, ICE raids have ramped up hard. In April alone, 17,200 people were deported—a 29 percent jump from the same time last year.
Trump’s goal? Remove 15 million people. That’s 4 million more than even the government estimates are undocumented.
Meanwhile, protests are exploding across the country. In Los Angeles, a Home Depot raid sparked riots and violent clashes with law enforcement. Trump responded by sending in the National Guard and even Marines—over the objections of local leaders.
Still, the numbers are nowhere near Trump’s target. Only about 140,000 have been deported so far this year.
That’s cold comfort for small business owners like Scardina.
He voted for the crackdown. Now it’s tearing his business—and his workers’ lives—apart.
Watch the report below from NBC6 Florida:
