The Miami Herald reported that restaurants, hotels, construction, and other industries are experiencing a severe labor shortage due to Governor DeSantis’ crackdown on undocumented immigrants. Not only has he feuded with the state’s biggest employer, Disney, but he’s undermined the state’s tourist industry.
Richard Gonzmart, the fourth-generation owner of the iconic Columbia Restaurant chain based in Tampa, says it’s time for politicians to start listening on immigration. When federal immigration authorities arrived at his Sand Key restaurant in Clearwater to find outdated and noncompliant work documents for 19 of his employees, he was forced to fire them all — including seven people who had worked with his family for decades.
“With 2,000 employees, it becomes very difficult to monitor it,’’ Gonzmart said in an interview. “We think they’re legal but, when we had to check, we found seven people who have been with me 30 years — paying taxes, had children, grandchildren — and we were required to terminate them.” Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Tampa would not comment on the case, and Gonzmart said he was still negotiating a resolution to the conflict. But the incident underscores the double scrutiny many businesses face as a new state law layers new immigration enforcement policies to existing federal rules in a way that is exacerbating worker shortages.
It’s a scenario that’s playing out across Florida with restaurants, construction companies and farms searching for workers as the political rhetoric over immigration is clanging up against a tight labor market and expanding population. Gonzmart is the great-grandson of Casimiro Hernandez Sr., the founder of the historic Ybor City restaurant that is the chain’s anchor. Since its opening in 1905, the company has treated employees as part of the restaurant family, paying them above market wages and benefits, he said….
It’s a scenario that’s playing out across Florida with restaurants, construction companies and farms searching for workers as the political rhetoric over immigration is clanging up against a tight labor market and expanding population. Gonzmart is the great-grandson of Casimiro Hernandez Sr., the founder of the historic Ybor City restaurant that is the chain’s anchor. Since its opening in 1905, the company has treated employees as part of the restaurant family, paying them above market wages and benefits, he said….
It’s a scenario that’s playing out across Florida with restaurants, construction companies and farms searching for workers as the political rhetoric over immigration is clanging up against a tight labor market and expanding population. Gonzmart is the great-grandson of Casimiro Hernandez Sr., the founder of the historic Ybor City restaurant that is the chain’s anchor. Since its opening in 1905, the company has treated employees as part of the restaurant family, paying them above market wages and benefits, he said….
Many of his employees, especially those working in the kitchens and “back of the house” are fathers, sons and brothers, Gonzmart said. So when immigration officials told him the I-9 forms of his most loyal employees were not in compliance and he would have to fire them, he resisted. “I told them I wouldn’t let them go and they threatened to arrest me,’’ he recalled. “I said, ‘That’s a good idea. Why don’t you all come and arrest me? But let me know when, so I can have cameras here!’ Then, they sent me a $500,000 fine, and I let them go…”
Meanwhile, Gonzmart said the incident “almost put us out of business,’’ and while customer demand has rebounded from the pandemic, the inability to find enough new staff has forced him to suspend his catering services and reduce restaurant hours.
Carol Dover, president and CEO of the more than 10,000-member Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association, said that Gonzmart is not alone. Hotels are not opening all rooms because they don’t have enough housekeepers, restaurants that used to be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner are now open for just lunch and dinner, and existing staff puts in extra hours, she said. “Everybody’s having to get creative with their thinking.”
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/immigration/article278161652.html#storylink=cpy
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is what idiocy and cruelty look like. The Columbia is a wonderful place, and its treatment of employees is an example for all. Curses upon those who have interfered with their operations, which have done so much good in the world.
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When you come here to Tampa, I highly recommend that you take the time for a trip to the Columbia. The food and entertainment and ambiance are all outstanding. A real treat.
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The Columbia, in Ybor City (the cigar factory area of Tampa), is known for its outstanding paella and flamenco dancing.
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Dictator DeSantis is hurting the Florida economy with his extremist anti-immigrant policies. He would rather score points with his base by being cruel and unreasonable than understanding that immigrants pay taxes and make a positive contribution to our society. DeSantis is tone deaf and unyielding, even when he is wrong or harms the economy. He “doesn’t back down” because he cannot be the bigger man that sees the bigger picture. DeSantis wields power by wearing blinders and his bias on his sleeve.
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He is so destructive. It’s just awful.
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A wise person knows that you should back down when you make a mistake. DeSantis never backs down.
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Addition to your thought: “A wise person knows that you should back down when you make a mistake. DeSantis never backs down, he doubles down.”
(Like all gamblers when their winnings turn into loses. . . which is inevitable.)
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“it’s time for politicians
to start listening…”
First one must
“Have their ear”.
Fruitless verbosity
is the tell, you don’t.
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What is your solution? You imply that everyone who wants to move to the U.S. should be allowed to do so. If that is not your position, explain what the limits on immigration are that you favor. The American economy cannot absorb all of the hundreds of millions of low-skilled, minimally educated, not fluent in English people who would like to move here from all over the world. If employers can make a valid case that there is a workforce shortage, expand legal immigration.
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My solution is for Congress to pass an immigration law that offers a path to citizenship for those who have lived here for years, paid their taxes, been good citizens. Currently, there is no path. That’s wrong.
Similarly, the requirements for entering the country should be clarified and enforced. In addition, those who legally enter the country should qualify for work permits immediately. They come to work and we don’t let them.
In addition, I would like to see a revival of the practice of sponsorship, where an American citizen guarantees that the person they sponsor will have a job and will not be a burden to the state.
A few years back, I met an undocumented Guatemalan who had a full-time job working for a small construction company. He became an expert carpenter, plumber, handyman. He worked six days a week, except for Sundays, which he spent at his church. He had not seen his wife or children for 12 years. He sent money home to them. He wanted to become a U.S. citizen. There was no way. That’s not right. He was an honest, hardworking man. He went back to Guatemala, where there is no work for him.
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“My solution is for Congress to pass an immigration law that offers a path to citizenship for those who have lived here for years, paid their taxes, been good citizens.”
Several million undocumented immigrants have entered the country just during the Biden administration. Should they be allowed to stay? What about the thousands who entered just over the last seven days?
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Having coherent immigration policy is not “open borders.” Both parties need to work together iron out a reasonable solution. Instead, both of them keep kicking the issue down the road instead of addressing and resolving it.
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Becky, would it make you feel better to learn the truth that Biden has continued and defended most of Trump’s immigration policies? The idea that either party is “soft” on immigration is propaganda. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/10/biden-trump-immigration-policies-503108
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Dienne is correct.
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The best solution would be to stop causing the problems in their countries that are causing their people to flee here in the first place. Maybe if we’d stop couping and regime changing every country that tries to do good things for their people and stopped installing/propping up right-wing dictators, people would be able to live comfortably in their own counties. There’s a reason why BRICS has been rapidly gaining popularity in the global south (and just admitted six new members).
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Dienne
Do you have a clue how the right hammers Democrats on immigration and crime issues. It dates back 4 -5 decades. Instead of your talking like a Working Class hero how about talking to working class people. Try talking to a NY Union Electrician out of work close a year, as he sees immigrants documented and undocumented working non union on high rise towers . Try telling him the answer is being able to organize these workers, see if you can do better than most progressives in the Union movement.
Its easy to say Biden has not done enough until you talk to people and see how riled up they are about those 2 issues. Crime is lower by multiples in NYC than every year between 2012 and 1960(when America was Great ). Yet Republicans were able to take 5 seats in Metro NYC running on fear of crime. The same threatens to happen again on immigration but Biden does not live up to your expectations.
And those authoritarian s—holes have a problem. Besides the “New Boss being the same as the Old Boss.”
https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/dedollarization-suffers-a-blow-as-the-greenbacks-share-in-global-payments-hits-a-record-high/articleshow/103025130.cms
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We need to immensely increase the number of immigration judges as a first step. The average time to an asylum hearing was 5 years. I’m now hearing about people getting them scheduled almost 10 years out–that is manifestly insane. There’s no good reason Congress shouldn’t be able to fix this problem.
It’s being litigated now, but Biden established a policy of barring migrants from applying for asylum if they don’t first apply for safe harbor in another country before reaching the U.S. It’s a good policy. The idea that people fleeing their native country to escape “persecution” would pass through several other countries before finally illegally entering the U.S. is ridiculous.
Those are two things, and especially the first one, that would have a big impact on the migrant surge and should have bipartisan support.
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Although this employer might be an angel there are many employers who are not, as they exploit the immigrant and lower the standard of living of American workers. Employers can file I9 forms with homeland security in states that have and have not accepted the standard .
But then what to do about the immigrant. We have no problem picking winners and losers. Our trade policy for decades even under Trump has sought to protect the “intellectual property rights ” of American Corporations while placing American Workers in competition with the lowest paid workers in the world. We protect our Doctors and Dentists from equally qualified Doctors in the EU and Canada and other Nations coming here to practice . We even halfheartedly protect Tech Workers. We require H1B Visa holders to be paid the prevailing wage for Tech Workers in the Locality they work in. Of course with few Unions in the tech sector enforcement is lax.
There is no(God given ) reason that every worker can not be given documents regardless of immigration status ( a bio metric Social Security Card tied to M4All with payroll taxes covering the insurance.). There is no reason that all immigrant workers not be paid the prevailing wage in every industry, regardless of immigration status . And be allowed to join Unions. Or a reason that Union Organizing be next to impossible. Sure Amazon workers on Staten Island voted for a Union .Hell will freeze over and the Union will be decertified before they have a first contract.
. No reason that our immigration laws do not actually reflect the labor needs of the country. The shortage of educated workers way overblown. For some strange reason in times of high unemployment the skills required by employers go up and those same employers lower their requirements when labor is scarce. What changed about the Job that an unskilled worker can now do the Job. While employer provide training is down for 3 decades . Up until the last few months it was low skilled jobs in the bottom 10-20% seeing wage gains not high skilled labor nearer the top. What does that tell you about where shortages were. The Tech sector is just not that big 8% of the work force. Which is why all those announcements of layoffs have barely dented the unemployment rate. AI. is about to put that statement on steroids in many occupations.
US foriegn and even trade policy right to the current day has created many of these hellholes people are desperate to escape. From farmers in Southern Mexico to Venezuelans. If we want to slow the flow of immigration what do we have to do to fix what we broke.
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All that I know is that my eldest son, an executive chef, says that it’s best to hire Latinos for the back work as they actually work unlike American back end hires.
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Duane,
I assume you don’t intend this, but this comment isn’t okay to say.
It’s not acceptable to make any statement in which you say people of some ethnic background or race are all the time – either harder workers or worse workers or whatever it is. And it isn’t okay because you believe you are have supposedly said something positive about an entire ethnic group like “they actually work”.
Latinos ARE Americans, unless you are referring to undocumented or newly arrived documented immigrants. And consider whether the problem is that in order to hire the Americans who might “actually work”, maybe they need to be paid higher wages.
Plenty of American back end hires work hard, but if you pay wages that aren’t particularly high, the hardest workers will find better jobs, and the hardest workers who take those jobs have few other options.
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Mira, sé lo que quiero decir y lo dije. ¿Entiendes?
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Who put the stick up your arse?
Maybe in your world my true statement of what my son said isn’t acceptable. . . to you. Maybe what he said isn’t acceptable. . . to you. But it is very acceptable in any normal conversation outside your little realm of political correctness. Sad, indeed very sad, that you can’t accept a statement as it is and not put some horse manure bent on it. But we’ve seen you put words and meanings not intended into others mouths.
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Duane:
“it’s best to hire Latinos for the back work as they actually work unlike American back end hires.”
“it’s best to hire Latinos for the back work as they actually work unlike American back end hires.”
I didn’t put those words in your mouth. In fact it is rich that you would attack me that way when your friend who constantly accuses me of doing what she does was once again caught putting words in another commenter’s mouth. Twice.
Please think about what it sounds like when you write “it’s best to hire Latinos for the back work as they actually work unlike American back end hires” and then double down on it when someone points out that kind of comment isn’t okay.
I apologize if I didn’t write the comment in the most perfect way – apparently I failed. But that doesn’t give you an excuse to ignore the content of what I said. I was surprised you would write: “it’s best to hire Latinos for the back work as they actually work unlike American back end hires.” Lazy American workers? From you???
I know there are many older white university professors who make these kinds of comments (like referring to how smart and hardworking Asian students are compared to “American” students) and when their students try to get them to change, lash out and belittle and demean the young people for being “snowflakes”. I don’t get why people can’t just say “I never thought about it that way, but I will” instead of doubling down. I have no doubt that many people who are Latino would not even care, but it doesn’t mean that you should keep referring to Latinos as distinct from “Americans”. Nor is it okay to single out workers of a single ethnic group and make a sweeping statement about how they are better workers than “American” hires.
And if your intent was to say that Latino workers who are NOT Americans are better than “American hires”, then that seems very similar to the anti-union right wing smears about how lazy American workers are. “it’s best to hire Latinos for the back work as they actually work unlike American back end hires.”
I assume your son said that to you the way people say these kinds of things which they would NEVER say publicly because they understand what it sounds like. But ask your son. If he agrees with you that making statement like that is “acceptable” where you live and he is good with you attributing that statement to him, then I expect you to ignore me and keep on doing what you believe is the absolutely right thing to do and amplifying the truth as your son sees it. I disagree strongly, and it’s disappointing to hear you personally attacking me simply for disagreeing.
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Whatever.
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If DeSantis stays in power in Florida, he may find a way to take away Social Security and Medicare for elderly citizens living in the state, forcing them to return to the workforce, working long days in the fields, in construction, and in restaurants.
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In addition, DeSantis may find a way to get rid of the child labor laws, putting children born in Florida to work in the fields, construction, and in restaurants as young as seven.
For children living in poverty, forget about going to school. Instead, they will become a major factor in DeSantis’s war against poverty.
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New day… month… year…. Same question:
What is the endgame? How does this chapter end?
Here’s what. So what? Now what?
Dog catches car?
Put thousands of immigrants out of work.
1. Are there thousands of good old blue blooded born in the USA people to fill those jobs?
2. Where do they go?
The governor is using a German ’30s playbook, but maybe he’s got a U.S. one, too. No bomb, but sure sounds like Florida is headed to concentration camps.
Too “out there” of a critique. Ok
What’s your/their answer to #2 above?
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Hell must be freezing over, when I agree with both of my other two NYC commenters, FLERP! and NYC PSP . We need more immigration courts and it is demeaning to say Latin Labor is unafraid to do the heavy “back work “. I suppose they are unafraid to die or be injured on construction sites in NYC as well. Most people would not say that is being unafraid. That is being exploited by unscrupulous employers who are unafraid of prosecution.
But for Dienne who feels Biden Policy is as bad as Trumps on immigration.
Here is the real world we live in quite different from the nihilist Left .
“By Yancey Roy
yancey.roy@newsday.com@yanceyroy
Updated August 22, 2023 11:44 am
ALBANY — An overwhelming share of New York voters believe the recent influx of migrants to the state is a “serious problem” and a majority say the state should slow down the flow, according to a poll released Tuesday.
The Siena Research Institute survey also says a slight majority of voters (50% to 40%) supports the idea of moving migrants from temporary quarters in New York City to permanent housing in communities around the state.
But voters are giving Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York Mayor Eric Adams low marks for handling the migrant situation. Hochul received her lowest job approval rating in a Siena poll since becoming governor in August 2021. ”
So this is NY not Tennessee. The issue clearly has voters upset across the spectrum. Does that mean they are being rational about the extent of the problem not really. Does that mean that the media has not hyped the problem. They have. But that is the reality of American politics .
82% are not Trumpanzees by a long shot. But that they are voters. Dienne try talking to them sometime, its a tough conversation. Even with those that have evolved past the semi bipedal creature that supports Trump .
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Immigration policy is a black box for most people. Increasingly, people feel strongly about it, but they have no idea what the policy fights between national Democrats and Republicans are, except maybe apart from a “wall.” Apart from my personal experience working on different sides of immigration law (pro bono work for asylum applicants and drafting decisions for appeals of immigration judge’s denials of asylum), and my personal experience watching busloads of thousands of migrants arriving almost literally in my backyard (I don’t have a backyard) every week, I count myself in that group. If you google the issue, it’s pretty difficult to get a sense of what policy fights are actually taking place in Congress. That itself suggests that despite its prominence in media, Congress isn’t actually doing much of anything.
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FLERP!
The blow back from previous attempts was immense. Obama was the deporter and Chief . Yet 3 years after the last attempt to have reform Trump gets elected with Xenophobia central to his platform. And inspite of our National Myths bout being a Nation of Immigrants . That Xenophobia has been present for most of our history from 1840 on. The Civil War making the Irish White, as both sides needed their Scotch Irish to do battle for them.
We can fantasize about legislation solving our undocumented immigration problems. But the one area I agree with Dienne is: that it was US foriegn policy, a lot of it in support of US / Global Corporations exploiting these Countries that turned these Nations into hell holes. And it continues to this day. How do you stem a flow you have created. What parent other than a desperate one sends young teens on dangerous journeys.
NAFTA may have contributed to these migration flows as much as the “School of The Americas “. NAFTA increasing poverty and extreme poverty in Southern Mexico. Mexico’s growth rate one of the most anemic in the hemisphere since NAFTA . As Mexican Immigrants I believe still represent the Majority of those who cross the Border.
But if we were by some miracle able to solve those two problems what effect will Climate disasters have?
The task is daunting with no easy legislative fixes. Legislation that reduced the threat(real or perceived) to the standard of living of Native Americans, would go a long way . Good Ruck we can’t agree to raise the minimum wage.
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