Texas Restaurant Association warns immigration declines worsen staffing shortages

Texas restaurants are dealing with a staffing squeeze that is already showing up on the floor, in the kitchen and in the sales book. Nearly one in four restaurant employees are immigrants, and the Texas Restaurant Association says employers are seeing fewer workers show up, harder hiring, and weaker traffic at the same time.

The numbers are stark: 55% of restaurant operators say recent immigration policy changes have hurt their business, 25% are having trouble hiring and retaining employees, 37% are seeing traffic and sales declines, and 18% have had employees not come to work. Emily Williams Knight, the association’s president and chief executive, said many workers were scared to show up and that sales were falling, leaving no room to absorb margin hits. In a business built on thin profit cushions, that kind of disruption means open shifts go uncovered, stations run short, and the remaining staff takes on more overtime and more burnout.

The association has tried to push the issue beyond politics and into operations. It launched Seat the Table and helped roll out Keep Food on the Table with more than 20 hospitality and agricultural groups, a signal that restaurant leaders see the labor problem as part of the larger food chain, from planting and processing to cooking and serving. Last August, the TRA also urged Congress and the White House to grant work permits to long-term immigrant workers, underscoring how directly the group links immigration policy to day-to-day restaurant staffing.

The broader industry backdrop helps explain why Texas operators are sounding the alarm. A National Restaurant Association policy brief published April 10 said immigration is essential to the strength and stability of the restaurant workforce, and that a reliable workforce affects costs, service levels and growth. The NRA says restaurants are the nation’s second-largest private employer, with more than 15.7 million workers at more than 1 million locations and $1.4 trillion in annual sales. In March, the group said 23% of restaurant employees were born outside the U.S. and 3 in 10 speak a language other than English at home.

Texas is especially exposed. The TRA’s 2024 snapshot said the state had more than 56,000 restaurant locations, a workforce of over 1.4 million and $106 billion in foodservice sales, with 91% of restaurants employing fewer than 50 people. Restaurant Business said Texas has the second-highest immigration workforce in the U.S. and the second-largest restaurant industry after California. In Austin-area restaurants, uncertainty around enforcement has already been tied to labor shortages and economic pressure, while traffic weakness in Hispanic and Mexican-origin communities has added another drag on sales.