PORT ISABEL, Texas - That plate of fried shrimp people enjoy at a restaurant –whether locally or away from home – could either be taken off the menus or cost a lot more.
The tastier Gulf shrimp caught by trawlers off the Texas Gulf Coast from the Brownsville/Port Isabel to the Palacios areas could also be replaced by farmed-raised crustaceans.
That’s because this South Texas industry - one of the nation’s largest – is caught in the middle of a crisis caused by today’s U.S. immigration policies and by what is going on in countries south of Mexico.
The expected arrival of hundreds of people who traditionally work on the boats, known as shrimp headers, is on halt right now; yet the kickoff of the 2022 season is about two weeks away.
Up to last year, some 300 seasonal workers mostly from south of the border have been keeping the industry afloat.
But U.S.-issued visas called H2B, or documents that allow them to work here on a temporary basis in non-agricultural jobs, have not been authorized to those from Mexico and Nicaragua.
If the situation stands as is, up to 35 percent of the current Brownsville/Port Isabel shrimp fleet of about 130 vessels could not go out to fish in gulf waters around July 15. That amounts to some 45 boats.
Israel Linarte, an industry liaison who recently traveled to Central America to recruit people to work on the boats as shrimp headers, said things are looking bleak.
“The visas the U.S. government has been issuing to Nicaraguan and Mexican citizens have not been available today.” he said. “But many of these visas are now available to people from four other countries.”
They are Haiti and from the so-called northern triangle made up of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.
The quartet is a part of a Biden administration economic initiative to help stop the flow of immigration toward the United States.
According to a U.S. Customs & Immigration Service press release issued on May 31 of this year, the agency has received enough petitions to reach the cap for the additional 23,500 visas made available for returning workers only.
“We continue to accept petitions for H2B nonimmigrant workers for the additional 11,500 visas allotted for nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Haiti, regardless of whether they are returning workers,” the release states. “Petitioners whose workers were not selected for the 23,500 returning worker allotment are encouraged to refile.”
Against this backdrop, the Rio Grande Valley shrimp industry is facing this dilemma: it needs at least 240 “emergency” workers as the season gets underway by the middle of July.
Linarte said Honduras has some 30 workers available at this moment.
The crucial aspect is to issue the H2B visas to the workers from south of the border, many of whom come here to work as shrimp headers season after season.
“Some of these Mexican workers have been on boats for more than 30 years,” he said. “It will be real difficult to find replacements for them as we speak.”
Although citizens from El Salvador, Guatemala and Haiti qualify for the H2B visas, Linarte said but most of them lack the experience working with seafood, let alone handling huge volumes of shrimp during the early days of the season, known as La Corrida, or the run.
Carlton Reyes, owner of a small fleet of shrimp trawlers at the Brownsville Shrimp Basin, said he is going to wait and see what happens.
“If we don’t get the workers we need,” he said, “we are not going to send all of our boats out.”
Shrimpers from the Upper Gulf Coast said they are in the same predicament.
David Aparicio, who owns a fleet of about 15 trawlers, said he usually gets about 30 deck hands from Mexico every season.
“We hardly have anybody right now and the season is fast approaching,” he said. “If we don’t get what we need we are going to tie up our boats.”
Aparicio said Palacio’s trawlers land the largest shrimp crop in the entire United States.
But he said a number of factors are now putting the industry are risk.
“This is developing into a perfect storm,” he said. “Shrimp prices are low, fuel (red diesel) costs are the highest we have seen in a while and no labor.”
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