09/07/2026
While many of us are off today enjoying the long weekend 🌅, let’s acknowledge the restaurant and hospitality workforce.
was established in 1894 as a federal holiday to celebrate the social and economic achievements of American workers. Not just a day off. A day for the people who work. 👷🧑🍳🛠️
Last week, I had a seat at the table. 🪑 I was invited to a roundtable with Acting Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling, alongside restaurant and agriculture leaders across Nevada and the country. I didn’t just show up as a board member of the Nevada Restaurant Association. I showed up as a Salvadoran 🇸🇻 immigrant who came to Las Vegas at six years old, built a life here, and a decade ago built a PR and community outreach firm that now employs a team of 8.
I used that seat to speak for people who don’t have one: coworkers, friends, employees, extended family, and thousands of others in my Salvadoran and immigrant communities whose futures hang on a policy deadline most people will never think twice about.
Here’s why it matters, in numbers: 📊
🍳 51% of line cooks in Nevada are foreign-born, vs. 17% nationally.
🏨 Nevada has the highest share of foreign-born hospitality workers of any state, at 37% of our tourism and hospitality workforce.
🌎 1 in 3 restaurant owners in Nevada is foreign-born.
💵 The restaurant industry generates $23.3 billion in annual sales in Nevada and employs 231,000 people, making it the largest private employer in the state.
Some of my remarks included: ⬇️
“Secretary Sonderling, today we need your help to extend Salvadorans’ temporary status, but really, we need the Department of Labor to champion a pathway for all people with temporary status to be made permanent residents, and afford them the same opportunities that our families both had.”
Thank you 🙏 to the American Business Immigration Coalition and Nevada Restaurant Association for the invitation and for trusting me with a seat at that table. I don’t take it lightly.
Happy Labor Day ❤️ to the workers who built this industry, and to the ones still fighting for the chance to keep building it.
