{"id":414383,"date":"2026-08-23T04:48:44","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T04:48:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/414383\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T04:48:44","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T04:48:44","slug":"immigration-enforcement-adding-to-workforce-shortages-in-texas-restaurants-report-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/414383\/","title":{"rendered":"Immigration enforcement adding to workforce shortages in Texas restaurants, report finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Texas Restaurant Association report found that 36% of operators lost employees due to immigration enforcement, while 28% saw fewer applicants or accepted offers.<\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 A new report from the Texas Restaurant Association finds that immigration enforcement is contributing to ongoing workforce shortages facing restaurants across Texas.<\/p>\n

The association surveyed about 50 restaurant operators across the state for its\u00a0latest report<\/a>. According to the research, 36% of operators said they have lost employees because of immigration enforcement, while 28% said they are seeing fewer job applicants or fewer people accepting job offers.<\/p>\n


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The report also found that some restaurants are seeing a decline in customer traffic because people are afraid to be out in public.<\/p>\n

Kelsey Erickson Streufert, Chief Public Affairs Officer for the Texas Restaurant Association, told KVUE that the findings show the issue is affecting a significant portion of the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are pretty significant numbers,\u201d Streufert said. \u201cThat tells us that a really sizable portion of Texas restaurants are feeling one or more impacts because of our immigration enforcement activities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Streufert said about 20% of the restaurant workforce is foreign-born, many of whom have work authorization.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cImmigrants are really critical at every stage of our food pipeline,\u201d Streufert said. \u201cFood costs, as I mentioned, have already gone up 35% since the COVID-19 pandemic. And we’ve got a study that shows they’re going to go up an additional 14.5% if we stick to our current immigration policy playbook.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nLocal restaurant owners feel the impact <\/p>\n

At L\u2019Oca d\u2019Oro in Austin, co-owner Adam Orman said the restaurant industry has faced significant challenges over the years.<\/p>\n

Orman has worked in the restaurant industry for nearly 30 years, including through the 2008 recession and the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve seen restaurants deal with a lot of adversity,\u201d Orman said.<\/p>\n

Now, he said immigration enforcement is creating another challenge for restaurants.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than half of our employees have been impacted by immigration enforcement over the last year and a half,\u201d Orman said.<\/p>\n

He said the impact includes employees being detained or leaving the country, as well as family members, roommates and friends being affected.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just undocumented workers who are being caught up in this enforcement,\u201d Orman said. \u201cA lot of our employees are afraid to come and go to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orman said losing workers can impact services and local businesses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more of those [small businesses] we lose, the worse it is for the local economy,\u201d Orman said. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be fewer jobs, and we’re going to continue to lose a lot of what makes Austin, Austin.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Texas Restaurant Association said expanding work permits could help address workforce shortages in the industry.<\/p>\n

Orman said changes to immigration enforcement tactics could also help ease the challenges facing restaurants, while support from the local community will also be important for locally owned businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hope is that we’re going to find ways to support locally owned restaurants even more,\u201d Orman said. \u201cAnd that’s what we’re going to see more of in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Texas Restaurant Association report found that 36% of operators lost employees due to immigration enforcement, while 28%…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-414383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}