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Know This Now, September 17, 2026: Lawmakers Join Restaurant and Food Leaders to Tell Congress: Pick from the “Menu” to Give Work Permits to Long-term Immigrants

By September 17, 2026October 14th, 2026No Comments

U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and U.S. Representative Eugene Vindman (D-VA-07) joined the James Beard Foundation, Independent Restaurant Coalition, Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, ABIC Action and other leaders from the Seat the Table coalition Tuesday to call on Congress to act in the November lame duck session on immigration solutions already on the table.



The full event is featured on Forbes News YouTube, or you can watch video highlights on ABIC Action Facebook, Instagram or Tiktok.

Speakers stood beside a 7-foot-tall “menu” displaying legislative proposals currently pending before Congress that would help with workforce shortages, relieve pressure on food prices and help stabilize families and communities across the country.

“This should not be hard. Democrats and Republicans, take a look at the menu, see which one you want to vote for and let’s get after it,” said U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-NM).

Explore the menu options below:
SENATE:
Dream Act of 2025 (Durbin-Murkowski)
SECURE Act (Van Hollen)
State-Sponsored Visa Pilot Program Act of 2026 (Kelly-Curtis)
Fairness for Immigrant Families Act (Cortez-Masto)
S. 4814 to extend TPS for Haiti (Markey)

HOUSE:
Dignity Act of 2025 (Escobar-Salazar)
American Dream and Promise Act (Garcia-Salazar)

TPS Extension for El Salvador (Vindman)
Farm Workforce Modernization Act (Newhouse-Lofgren).

“People of good faith and reality can solve these problems. Are we out of time this year? Hell no, we’re not out of time. We can put a bill together and pass it in the Senate and the House in the remaining days left in this session,” said U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), lead sponsor of the Dream Act of 2025.

The solutions on the menu would “ensure food affordability and safeguard workers, small businesses, families and communities. These options are already sitting here on Congress’s plate,” said Rebecca Shi, CEO of ABIC Action. “When we pull highly productive, long-term workers out of farms, packing plants, grocery stores and restaurant kitchens, there is simply no one to replace them.”

U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), lead sponsor of the SECURE Act, said the legislation would provide “important certainty and stability to people who are here on TPS, people who have legal status, undergo regular background checks and have been important parts of our communities.”

U.S. Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-VA-07) spoke about the bill he introduced to extend Salvadoran TPS and employment authorization for the next 18 months. His comments at the press event were featured in a Politico piece on  Salvadoran TPS.


Restaurant leaders described how immigration enforcement has disrupted operations and created a climate of fear, contributing to the loss of experienced employees, declining customer traffic and greater strain on businesses already operating on thin margins.

“People aren’t showing up for work because they are scared. I’ve seen businesses in my town change their hours because they simply don’t have the help, and I’ve seen hotels take rooms offline because they cannot service them…We have solutions here before us. Congress, it’s time to act,” said Bill Lay, Restaurant Owner in Key West, Florida, and Member of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association.

Lay was also featured in a New York Times feature on Key West’s workforce reeling from ICE fears and TPS changes. ““If this continues, this will devastate the local economy down here,” Lay told the NYT.

CTA BUTTON: Tell your lawmakers: ‘It’s time to act’
 Tell your lawmakers: ‘It’s time to act’

Midterm Watch: Comité de 100

With fewer than 50 days until the 2026 midterms, new polling and campaign developments are highlighting the importance of Hispanic voters, particularly in closely contested states and districts.

Florida Republican Rep. María Elvira Salazar publicly broke with President Trump this week over his immigration enforcement policies in a new campaign ad, The Hill and others reported, saying some enforcement efforts have “gone too far.”

“Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far…The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today,” said Salazar, who represents a Miami-area district that is 74% Hispanic, underscoring the critical nature of immigration as an election issue in South Florida.

The new ad comes on the heels of Republicans deemphasizing deportations during their convention in Texas last week, as the Houston Chronicle reported.

Speakers focused on border security and reduced crossings while largely avoiding discussion of mass deportations. That’s a sharp contrast from two years ago, as immigration policy has turned into more of a liability for Republican candidates, especially among Hispanic voters.

Democratic candidates lead their Republican opponents by roughly 2-to-1 among Hispanic voters in the Senate and governor’s races, according to a  Cook Political Report and TelevisaUnivision survey of 1,000 Hispanic likely voters in Texas, conducted August 26–September 3.

Nearly two-thirds of Hispanic voters said they would be less likely to support a candidate who backs Trump’s deportation policy. The Texas polling also showed that the 2024 coalition that brought significant Hispanic support to Trump is not static: 18% of Hispanic Texans who voted for Trump in 2024 now disapprove of his job performance, while 19% say they support Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico over Republican Ken Paxton.

A nationwide New York Times/Siena poll of 1,503 likely voters conducted September 8–13 found voters giving Democrats an edge over Republicans on several major issues. On immigration, 52% said they trusted Democrats more to handle the issue, compared with 45% who trusted Republicans. The poll also found the economy and cost of living were among voters’ central concerns.

TPS Uncertainty Continues for Employers, Savadorans

Last week the federal government chose to keep temporary protected status for El Salvador in place, for now, but the lack of long-term guidance left both employers and immigrant workers in limbo as they wait for what’s next, reports McKnight’s Senior Living. The article  featured ABIC Action’s letter, signed by nearly 60 employers and organizations, to President Trump and Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin urging the government to extend work permits for Salvadorans with TPS.

“We fully support a secure and orderly border to ensure public safety. We must also protect the economic foundation of our nation by stabilizing our existing, law-abiding workforce,” the letter states.

Many people with Salvadoran TPS have been legally working and contributing to the economy for more than 25 years.

“As happened with Haiti TPS, there have been multiple instances of new rules or guidance being released with little to no notice,” LeadingAge Associate Director of Immigration Advancement Shane Myers told McKnight’s, which causes disruptions for both care providers and seniors.

As workers with TPS have lost legal status, like the many Haitian TPS workers supporting America’s healthcare and senior care industries, employers have been forced to make impossible decisions, lawyer Jacob Monty and ABIC CEO Rebecca Shi told Law360. Shi said staffing losses have led to wings of facilities shutting down, and will drive up prices for consumers.

“When we remove highly productive, skilled immigrants from the workforce, whether they’re caring for American elderly, growing our food or building our homes, that’s going to affect Americans in the pocketbook,” Shi said. 


NPR reported the Haitian TPS decisions have devastated the economic center of Little Haiti in South Florida. Stores are empty, many shops now have their metal shutters down, a popular restaurant in the area had most of its staff picked up by ICE, and a nearby barbershop closed after the owner got detained.

Economic Fallout of Deportations
Mass deportations and expanded ICE raids could put millions of jobs at risk, a new ACLU and AFL-CIO analysis in Newsweek found, including jobs held by U.S.-born workers. Immigration policy is shrinking whole industries that rely heavily on immigrant labor. The analysis also warns that enforcement-driven labor shortages could push up costs for food, housing, home care and other services. 

The potential economic effects are already visible in some of the country’s fastest-growing regions. Bloomberg reported that Houston’s population and workforce growth are slowing as immigration declines, along with the flow of workers and economic expansion across Houston and the broader Sun Belt. With low birth rates and an aging population adding to the demographic challenge, reduced immigration could contribute to labor shortages, weaker tax revenues and slower long-term economic growth.

Fallout is also continuing from a massive immigration raid at a Hyundai manufacturing project in Georgia last year. Reuters reported that more than 300 South Korean workers detained during the raid are now challenging the U.S. government, alleging unlawful arrests, coercion and poor detention conditions. Many were in the United States for specialized technical work. 

Meanwhile, proposed changes to legal immigration could affect U.S. retention of highly skilled workers. Forbes reported that the Department of Homeland Security has proposed eliminating the current up-to-60-day grace period that allows H-1B and several other high-skilled visa holders to remain in the United States after losing a job while seeking new employment. 

Perspectives
Wall Street Journal Editorial:An Immigration Warning to Trump From Rep. Salazar

The WSJ Editorial Board writes that Rep. María Elvira Salazar’s new campaign ad is a signal of growing political concern within the GOP over President Trump’s immigration enforcement strategy.

“Mr. Trump would do better to take Ms. Salazar’s ad as a constructive warning. If her seat is really in play, then the GOP gerrymanders in Florida and Texas might not go the way the party expects in November, and other seats thought to be safe could be in play.

It’s mid-September, late to turn the ship, but here’s one idea: Mr. Trump has often spoken favorably of “Dreamers,” who were brought to this country as children. Perhaps he could announce that, in his final two years as President, he will push hard for a deal in Congress to let them stay.”

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