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Restaurants in the United States are facing an unprecedented crisis in filling kitchen positions: job applications for kitchen assistants dropped by 54% in 2025, according to figures from the National Restaurant Association reported this Monday by Telemundo News.
The decline is attributed to two combined factors: the climate of fear created by ICE raids within the immigrant community, and the low interest among American teenagers in physically demanding jobs with low wages.
The dependence of the sector on immigrant labor is structural. According to data from the U.S. Census, one in five restaurant workers is an immigrant, and they disproportionately hold kitchen positions: cooks, food preparers, and dishwashers.
The average salary of a dishwasher is around $16 per hour, a figure that falls short compared to other sectors. A store clerk can earn more with less physical effort, which discourages native workers from taking on these positions.
The executives of major chains have publicly acknowledged the problem. Chris Tomasso, CEO of First Watch, described the dishwasher position as "a challenging role and a critical position."
Rick Cardenas, Chief Executive Officer of Darden Restaurants, identified the hiring of dishwashers as his main operational challenge.
The impact is felt in specific businesses. A restaurant owner in Pittsburgh saw her sales plummet from $30,000 to $20,000 per month after her dishwasher left, while her remaining staff feared going to work even with valid permits.
In New York, nearly 4,800 restaurant workers left the city since March 2025 due to fears of raids.
In the hospitality sector, nearly 98,000 jobs disappeared between the end of 2024 and 2025.
The La Habana Vieja restaurant in Springfield closed in May 2025 after its Cuban employees lost their work permits, a case that illustrates how immigration policy directly impacts the Cuban community in the United States.
In July 2025, 17 migrant workers and a manager were arrested in Texas restaurants during ICE operations.
Under pressure from key economic sectors, the Trump administration briefly ordered a suspension of arrests in restaurants, farms, and hotels on June 14, 2025, but reversed the decision just three days later.
Rebeca Shi, Executive Director of the American Business Immigration Coalition, warned that "essential workers have disappeared, and we are seeing a 50% slowdown in our operations. Immigrants are paralyzed by fear and prefer to stay home."
Kitchen staff turnover averages 43%, contributing to an overall industry turnover of 75% in 2025, according to data from Homebase.
The combination of migration repression and lack of native replacements threatens to further exacerbate the staffing shortages in a sector that was already weakened since the pandemic.
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