Louisiana's crawfish industry feels the pinch of limits on foreign
workers
[March 26, 2026] By
STEPHEN SMITH and JACK BROOK
CROWLEY, La. (AP) — Spring is peak season in Louisiana for crawfish, the
hard-shelled star of outdoor parties. But a shortage of foreign workers
is dampening the mood.
Deep in Louisiana's bayous, where crawfish production is a $300 million
industry that is a key ingredient for backyard boils and buttery
etouffees served in New Orleans' French Quarter, operators are fuming
over labor struggles and pointing fingers at President Donald Trump's
administration over what they say has been a failure to authorize enough
guest foreign workers.
The shortages add to a list of industries in the U.S. that rely on
seasonal foreign labor, including landscaping and construction, whose
struggle to fill jobs has been exacerbated during the Trump
administration's wider clampdown on legal avenues for immigration. In
Louisiana, the need for crawfish workers has strained an industry that
is a symbol of state pride and frustrated Republican officeholders, many
of whom broadly support Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda but say
their pleas for more legal laborers have gone unanswered.
“People have built businesses around these workers and this year we
can’t get them,” said Alan Lawson, who runs a crawfish production
facility in the rural town of Crowley. “This industry would not exist
without it because the American people don’t want to do the jobs we’re
offering.”
Large-scale crawfish producers use guest workers, many from Mexico and
Central America, to shell and freeze the freshwater catch that is often
pulled from swampy rice fields. They are hired on H-2B visas for
nonfarming jobs and are allowed to stay in the U.S. for less than a year
after businesses first offer the jobs to Americans.
The Department of Homeland Security is required to release 66,000 H-2B
visas each year and can release nearly double that amount. But that
process happened later than usual this year — after Louisiana's crawfish
season had already begun.
DHS did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The Department of
Labor said it respects the crawfish industry and importance to the U.S.
economy, and that the agency “has been actively engaging with industry
stakeholders to help address workforce needs and identify workable
solutions.”
But even if guest workers arrive before crawfish season ends around
June, Lawson says, the damage is done. Restaurant owners and processors
say crawfish prices could spike for consumers already struggling with
affordability.
The demand for seasonal guest workers is high
U.S. businesses' increasing reliance on seasonal foreign workers to do
grueling jobs predates the Trump administration. The federal government
has not kept pace with the expanding need, and Trump's immigration
crackdown also has impacted the labor market. Businesses are seeking
tens of thousands more guest workers than the federal government has
made available, according to Labor Department data.
“The demand is there but the supply is not,” Louisiana Farm Bureau
Federation Public Policy Coordinator Andy Brown said. “These businesses
want to follow the law. They want to go through the legal parameters to
meet their labor needs.”
Most seasons at Lawson's facility, the job of peeling and packaging
thousands of pounds of the sweet-tasting, bright red crustaceans is
handled by more than 100 foreign workers. None have been allowed to come
this season.
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Juan Antonio harvests crawfish traps in a crawfish pond in Crowley,
La., Thursday, March 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
 DHS can begin offering supplemental
visas in consultation with the Labor Department at the start of the
federal fiscal year in October. However, the Trump administration
did not release supplemental visas until February. Initially, it
capped them at 35,000, or roughly half what the Biden administration
authorized. The Trump administration eventually agreed to release
nearly 65,000 supplemental visas — on par with recent years —
following pressure from businesses.
Crawfish producers say they don't have enough workers for the
season
Louisiana officials say the federal government rejected many
crawfish producers’ applications because they listed start dates
before January. DHS told Lawson that his company was not eligible
because he had applied months earlier, according to a February
rejection notice he showed to The Associated Press.
At least 15 of the state’s 20 major crawfish processing plants have
no guest workers this year, according to Louisiana Department of
Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain. The Republican
said the Trump administration’s indifference to their plight has
been “unacceptable.”
Crawfish processors say that despite advertising locally for months
for their peeling jobs, only a handful of Americans have turned up
for seasonal gigs paying around $13 an hour.
“I can’t put the crawfish somewhere else. They have to be peeled at
this time,” said processor David Savoy. “The locals don’t want to do
it, I’ve tried — standing on concrete for seven, eight hours a day,
peeling crawfish until your hands hurt.”
Some immigration law experts said the crawfish industry's labor
shortage reflects the administration's attitude toward legal
immigration.
“There’s much less of a push to facilitate legal immigration,” said
Julia Gelatt, associate director of the U.S. Immigration Policy
Program at the Migration Policy Institute. “It’s not a high priority
to make sure that the immigration system is moving smoothly.”
Restaurants and crawfish lovers could lose out
Crawfish farmers will have fewer options to sell their products and
the price of frozen tail meat in grocery stores will rise,
processors warn.
Chandra Chifici, who owns the New Orleans seafood restaurant
Deanie’s, is worried she won't be able to stockpile enough Louisiana
crawfish to get through the monthslong offseason.
“Some companies might not be able to have some of their dishes on
the menu,” Chifici said. “When tourists come into town, that’s what
they’re here for.”
___
Brook reported from New Orleans.
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