Crawfish processing plants in Louisiana are at a diminished capacity this year because they haven’t been able to get as many visas for the foreign guest workers who make up their labor force, according to state Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain.
“They simply cannot get their workers,” Strain, a Republican, said during a legislative budget hearing Tuesday. “Some of the plants that normally get 100 to 135 workers have gotten zero.”
Strain said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security stopped issuing visas for foreign workers for seasonal jobs before crawfish processing plants were able to hire all their laborers. The businesses applied for the visas in November as they normally do, but their applications were denied. They were told they should have waited until January to send in their requests, Strain said.
Guest worker visas allow foreign laborers to legally move to the United States on a temporary basis each year for seasonal jobs, such as those in seafood processing. When the work winds down, the foreign nationals return to their home countries.
Strain said some people who were denied work visas this year have come to Louisiana regularly for seasonal jobs for over a decade without any problems.
President Donald Trump has sought to limit both illegal and legal immigration since returning to office last year. Under pressure from businesses, he agreed at the end of January to issue 65,000 more guest worker visas to ease labor shortages.
But the crawfish industry is still struggling, Strain said.
“Without getting these workers, the plants will shut down,” he said. “And either, one, those crawfish are not consumed, or two, as has happened in the past, they will fill up tractor trailer loads of these crawfish, send them down to Mexico, get them peeled and bring them back.”
State Rep. Dodie Horton, R-Haughton, echoed Strain’s concerns about the crawfish industry during Tuesday’s hearing. She said a constituent has only been able to operate one of his five crawfish processing plants because of the foreign worker shortage.
“What I’m hearing is that our crawfish industry is in dire straits because they can’t get the workers that they normally do,” Horton said.
Strain said he has sent letters and made phone calls to the White House, the U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. Department of Agriculture about the problem. He has also personally written Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem asking for help, he told state lawmakers.
“I’m a bit frustrated from the answers I’m getting from Washington because they’re basically saying, ‘Well, they’ve met the cap, and you know what? There’s nothing else we can do,’” Strain said. “That’s unacceptable.’”
Strain said Louisiana’s congressional delegation and Gov. Jeff Landry are pressing the Trump administration over the foreign worker shortage.
The governor frequently boasts of having a close, personal relationship with Noem, who is in charge of the agency that issues work visas. But on Tuesday, Landry said it was the responsibility of Louisiana’s congressional members to address the foreign worker problem.
“The Department of Homeland Security has not fulfilled the amount of visas that they would normally do. That’s a decision that they make up there,” Landry said. “We have six members of Congress and two U.S. senators, and immigration is something that is right in their bailiwick. That is their lane to drive.”