LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Las Vegas runs on tourism, and the people behind that industry are overwhelmingly immigrants.
But as immigration enforcement ramps up across Southern Nevada, Culinary Workers Union Local 226 leaders say workers are feeling the pressure and fear.
“Immigrant workers are a big part of this, this is the biggest economy in the world and we need workers – they’re a key part of that,” said Ted Pappageorge, secretary treasurer of Culinary Workers Union Local 226.
The Culinary Union represents 60,000 workers and says 45% of its members are immigrants, with more than half identifying as Latino.
Pappageorge explained, fear among the immigrant community is already having ripple effects on workers.
“We seen visitation from our Canadian and Mexican customers fall off a cliff and our Southern Nevada or Southern California base, that is many Latino visitors are fearful and nervous,” Pappageorge said. “And when that happens, that means that our visitation is down and companies are looking at potential layoffs, and our members are quite nervous about that.”
According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors’ Authority, visitor volume dropped by 6.5 % compared to last year, convention attendance is down more than 10% and hotel revenue downtown dropped by nearly 14%.
While tourism officials haven’t linked the dip to immigration concerns, union leaders said it’s hard to ignore the fear that they’re hearing from the workforce.
“I was meeting with a group of workers that are facing a layoff yesterday and they were quite concerned and essentially the idea of these attacks on our allies that are also our best customers, this kind of riling up of the economy ,” Pappageorge said.
At the same time, immigration enforcement in Southern Nevada is intensifying.
The UNLV Immigration Clinic reported federal agents are detaining about 40% more people than they detained on any given day last year. They add about 69% of the people detained by ICE in Southern Nevada do not have a criminal conviction.
“We can’t keep up with the calls, the calls to the UNLV immigration clinic more than tripled to from the rate they were at the end of last year,” said Michael Kagan, director of the UNLV Immigration Clinic.
With arrests increasing and tourism softening, both the union and Kagan said the fear is real and it’s spreading.
“This this industry cannot function without immigrant workers,” Pappageorge said.
“This kind of fear is just so incredibly destructive to our neighbors to our community, to our economy,” Kagan said.
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