PHOENIX — In 2023, Adriana Zapata started Cocina Adamex in downtown Phoenix.
“If somebody calls in and I say, ‘Hey, is there any way you can stay a little longer?’ It’s always a yes,” Zapata old ABC15 about her employees. It’s also [what] they can do to help the business. So, the work ethic that the Hispanic community has is unmatchable.”
Zapata said immigrant labor is extremely important to keep her restaurant running. But, according to a new report released Tuesday from One Fair Wage and UC Berkeley’s Food Labor Research Center, foreign-born workers are leaving the industry at unprecedented rates—in large part, due to the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
“We had been hearing from, obviously, workers, but also employers, that the immigration enforcement that’s going on right now is devastating to the industry,” said Saru Jayaraman, founder and president of One Fair Wage, a national organization representing 13.6 million restaurant workers and a thousand small business restaurants.
Since March, more than 137,000 foreign-born workers have left the restaurant industry, according to the report.
“We are hearing across the board that that is a mix of undocumented and documented people, people who might have documents and have been very diligently reporting to ice, you know, very regularly saying, I’m doing what I was asked to do—report and still being swept up into these raids,” Jayaraman told ABC15, adding that by the end of the year, “you could see upwards of, you know, anywhere between three and 500,000 workers lost.”
Zapata said she has felt the impact of fearful workers and even customers at her restaurant.
“Right after the election, we saw a decrease in in-store traffic. Right away, the customer base dropped,” Zapata said. “Once a lot of the media was focused on tariffs and focused on immigration raids and ICE, then the second drop, the drop in applications coming in.”
Additionally, she said back in March and April, some employees didn’t show up to work due to fears of being deported, not because they are undocumented, but rather they feel like they will be caught up in the raids.
“It’s that they don’t want to go through the trouble, the uncertainty of being detained and what comes after that,” Zapata said.
While employees have gradually felt more confident going back to work, sales have been down. The restaurant is in a predominately Hispanic area, and foot traffic has decreased between 20-30 percent compared to last year, according to Zapata. She is hoping things turn around with the holiday season.
“We’re looking forward to that,” Zapata said. “We’re really working hard on that, but that doesn’t make up for the first three quarters of the year, the first three quarter year we’ve struggled.”
Despite the current political climate, Zapata underscored that each administration comes with its own set of new challenges and it’s about adapting.
“Every season, any election, is always about immigration. So, we’re already used to it. We’re used to being the spotlight, the forefront of every issue,” Zapata said.
