SourceTexas Restaurants Are Forcing a Reckoning Over Immigrant Labor
Restaurant operators say labor shortages, rising costs and worker fear have prompted an unusual alliance of industry and political leaders in Texas to call for legal pathways to hire immigrants.
On a recent Friday afternoon at Revolver Taco Lounge in Dallas, business was slow. Many seats at the restaurant were empty, and only a few customers were waiting for their orders. An art festival down the street was not generating much foot traffic.
For Regino Rojas, the owner, the day was not an anomaly but almost a new norm.
“I think this, right now, is worse than the pandemic,” he said.
About 50 percent of Texas restaurants reported that they were not profitable last year, up from 38 percent in 2024, according to the Texas Restaurant Association.
Some of that has been a consequence of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration: In Texas, where by some estimates nearly 10 percent of the work force is undocumented — compared with about 4.5 percent of the U.S. work force — restaurant owners have said that the crackdown has created a chilling effect among their workers, regardless of their immigration status.
Now as they feel the strain, the Texas Restaurant Association and business leaders across the country have started a coalition, called Seat the Table, demanding that Congress and the White House create work permits for “long-term, law-abiding immigrants playing critical roles from farms to restaurants.”
Across the country, roughly 42 percent of restaurant operators said they were not profitable last year, according to the National Restaurant Association, a slight uptick from 2024 as food and labor costs have steadily increased for years.
In backing the coalition, the Texas Restaurant Association, in a state with strong conservative roots, made clear that it was not calling for amnesty, nor was it asking for a pathway to citizenship for immigrants.
“I think the vast majority of Americans recognize that there is a large group of undocumented immigrants who have been literally keeping food on our tables,” said Kelsey Erickson Streufert, the chief public affairs officer for the Texas trade group. “And if we remove those people, it is going to hurt everyone in terms of higher prices.”
Most cities in Texas have not seen the high-profile immigration raids that have targeted California, Illinois and Minnesota over the past year. But immigration arrest data shows that federal agents have made more arrests in the Dallas, Houston and San Antonio areas since 2025 than in Los Angeles, which experienced several high-profile raids last year.
Adam Orman, who owns the restaurants L’Oca d’Oro and Bambino in Austin, said some immigrants in the area feared coming to work because of anxiety around arrests.
“Do I think that work permits would help? Yes,” Mr. Orman said. “But we also need to change the enforcement tactics, so that people aren’t afraid to go to work, people aren’t afraid to go spend money.”
Mr. Rojas said he was uncertain whether a program that offered work permits would help him as a small-business owner.
“That’s for big companies,” he said. “The small and medium-size businesses, we’ll be at the end of the line, and we’re the ones who work the hardest.”
The strain on labor has extended to Texas’ agriculture industry. Sam Lash, a co-founder of Farm to Table, a wholesale company based in Texas that connects local farmers with chefs, said farms across the state were struggling to find workers.
“There’s been a really symbiotic relationship between Texas farmers, Texas restaurant owners and immigrant labor for many generations,” Mr. Lash said. “I’ve been doing this for 18 years, there has never been a time where it is more difficult to access consistent, reliable, skilled labor from immigrants.”
Texas is among states that lead the nation in agricultural production, along with California, Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota. With more than 200,000 farms, Texas makes up more than 14 percent of farmland in the United States, according to the state agriculture department.
Anne E. McBride, vice president of impact at the James Beard Foundation, which has also joined the Seat the Table coalition, said it was important to partner with business leaders in Texas to show lawmakers that calls for work permits were coming from across the country. Business leaders in Nebraska and Utah have also backed the coalition.
“This cannot be something that only takes place in blue states or in blue cities, because it will fail,” she said.
Despite many efforts over the decades, immigration reform has been difficult to pass through Congress. But there have been some newly promising signs for bipartisan legislation on work permits for immigrants.
One proposed measure introduced last year, the so-called Dignity Act, calls for temporary legal status for undocumented immigrants who have been in the country for five years or more. The bill has been led by Representative María Elvira Salazar, Republican of Florida, and Representative Veronica Escobar, Democrat of Texas.
Ms. Escobar said that she was hopeful about the legislation, and that lawmakers were looking to build a balanced bipartisan coalition.
“We’re not going to add a Democrat until there’s a Republican to add,” Ms. Escobar said. “The reason why I’m hopeful is because there are so many business leaders across the various economic sectors who are sounding the alarm. I hope they will press on the administration.”
The legislation would also require undocumented immigrants to pay $7,000 in restitution over seven years, and increase penalties for those who cross the border into the country illegally.
Texas business owners are eagerly watching to see whether the measure garners more bipartisan support. The proposed legislation has met some opposition, especially from Republicans who have said that it is effectively an amnesty bill.
Restaurant owners have said that they believe Republican lawmakers may be unwilling to support such efforts amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, while Democrats lack a majority in Congress to advance legislation on permits.
“We’ve been saying that the Republicans are going to respond to the economic argument that this hurts small businesses, that this hurts business in general, that this is hurting farmers, that this is killing construction, and there’s been no movement,” Mr. Orman said. “I’ve heard from both sides. Neither is willing to go out on the limb.”
Mr. Lash, co-founder of Farm to Table, said he understood why Republicans “would be a bit fearful” to take a stand on work permits, given the perspective that the country should keep more jobs for U.S. citizens.
“But let’s be realistic, it’s not as if immigrant labor is coming in and literally getting American citizens fired and kicked off of farms,” Mr. Lash said. “They’re working jobs that people either American citizens don’t want or can’t perform. People don’t understand how physically demanding these jobs are.”
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a Republican, did not respond to a request for comment about whether he would support calls for work permits. Senator John Cornyn of Texas, also a Republican, declined to comment.
Ms. Erickson Streufert, with the Texas Restaurant Association, said she was aware of the criticism on work permits and the viability of the proposed measure.
“I have heard that anything short of citizenship is not enough,” she said. “And then I’ve heard that at the end of the day, anyone who’s here undocumented broke the law, and we shouldn’t reward that behavior with a post hoc legal status.”
Laura Collins, the director of immigration policy at the George W. Bush Institute, a policy organization, said that work permits for immigrants could be a positive “incremental reform” for now. During his presidency, President George W. Bush called on Congress in 2006 to pass comprehensive immigration reform, including increased border security and a temporary worker program. Despite some bipartisan support, the measure failed to pass through Congress.
“It might not be political reality to get a pathway to earned citizenship through Congress right now,” Ms. Collins said. “Legal work authorization is a good step from a work force perspective.”
Kristin Etter, the director of policy and legal services at the Texas Immigration Law Council, a nonpartisan organization that promotes immigrant rights, said work permits would help bring stability not just for workers but also for industries that rely on immigrant labor.
“At a time when many industries are struggling to hire and retain workers, policies that recognize the role immigrants already play in Texas’ economy make practical sense,” Ms. Etter said.
For now, Mr. Rojas, the owner of Revolver Taco Lounge in Dallas, said that he hoped for a boom in business during the World Cup this summer. Arlington, Texas, will host more matches than any other city in the United States, and thousands of fans are expected to stay in the Dallas-Fort Worth area during the tournament.
“We have to start with a positive mind-set,” Mr. Rojas said. “That’s what us Texans are like: We don’t let ourselves be pushed around. We like a struggle and a fight. We have no other choice.”
Jesus Jiménez is a Times reporter covering North Texas. He is based in Dallas.
I'm not sure I feel any sympathy for most of these people, this is what these captains of industry voted for.
