Bummer: Arresting Illegals Left NC Restaurants Shorhanded

If your business is dependent on employing illegal aliens, and probably paying them lower then minimum wage wage, you’re doing it wrong

Immigration arrests left NC restaurants short-staffed and job sites idle, owners say

For two weeks last November, kitchens at David “Woody” Lockwood’s restaurants ran short of dishwashers, prep cooks and servers as workers stayed home, afraid to leave their houses during a federal immigration crackdown that resulted in more than 400 arrests across North Carolina.

“We had a lot of people, mostly in the kitchen, that didn’t feel safe coming to work,” said Lockwood, a co-owner of Trophy Brewing and The Bend. That meant managers working extra shifts, longer waits for customers and paying employees who were not on the job to help them get by.

“We decided, at least for those two weeks, to pay those people for the hours they missed, which is not a sustainable thing,” Lockwood said.

Business owners and educators said the effects of the crackdown extended well beyond those taken into custody, disrupting construction and hospitality – two of the state’s largest industries – and keeping some students home from school.

If they are authorized to work in the US would any of them miss work? Obviously because they were not authorized, meaning these businesses were breaking federal law in employing the illegals. I actually wish that the early focus was on arresting and prosecuting the businesses who were employing illegals, which would have heavily discouraged businesses from employing them, meaning little work for illegals, meaning lots would voluntarily leave.

Mikki Paradis, chief executive of PDI Drywall, said construction sites fell silent for more than a week during the November operations.

“There was not a single person working on those jobs,” said Paradis, who has relied on Hispanic workers throughout her 21-year career. She said these labor shortages would slow housing construction and drive up costs.

OK, arrest her. ICE isn’t going to mostly bother with those authorized to work. Anyhow, Deb Ross, who represents NC 2 (my district), was there

Also, perhaps Deb could be more concerned with Americans than illegals.