Immigration raids drive away customers and staff in Texas eateries

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00:00Oscar Garcia-Santello owns a Mexican restaurant in Houston, Texas.

00:05His business is suffering because of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.

00:11He says sales have dropped by approximately 40 percent.

00:15There's an apartment complex nearby where about a month ago ICE was there for a whole

00:23week doing detention raids.

00:25Between that week and the week after, we had practically no sales.

00:32Spanish speakers and Latinos are often the targets of ICE raids.

00:36It is creating an atmosphere of fear in which even some employees are choosing to stay home.

00:43People were obviously afraid.

00:45In fact, an employee who lives in that complex, she didn't show up here all week.

00:51According to the Texas Restaurant Association, it is an industry-wide problem.

00:55We asked restaurants all across the state, how are these immigration enforcement actions

01:01impacting your business?

01:03Twenty-three percent said they've lost employees.

01:06Twenty-one percent said they're seeing fewer job applicants or fewer people accept job offers.

01:12The association has joined together with nearly a thousand different restaurant and hospitality

01:17leaders from all 50 U.S. states.

01:19They are urging the U.S. president to create temporary permits for taxpaying immigrant workers

01:25throughout America's food pipeline.

01:27We don't have enough workers in restaurants and farms and ranches and meatpacking plants,

01:33basically every single step of our food chain.

01:36And as a result, all Americans are paying a lot more for the food that they consume from

01:41grocery stores and from restaurants.

01:45In Texas alone, nearly a quarter of all restaurant workers are immigrants, powering the industry

01:51that adds $138 billion to the state's economy.

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