The Fish Market Restaurant on Blossom Hill Road is an establishment known for its excellent seafood and accommodating staff. Because of it’s old school charm and sophisticated menu, the restaurant tends to attract a conservative crowd as well as foodies and seafood aficionados.
Currently, due to an anonymous report submitted to the authorities, the restaurant is under investigation by Homeland Security for employing undocumented immigrants. Earlier this week, employees were notified that they have three days to submit documents proving that they are eligible to be employed in the United States. It is expected that the vast majority of the restaurant’s kitchen staff as well as several front of house workers will lose their jobs this week, many have already thrown in the towel.
The San Jose Fish Market is part of a bigger chain of Fish Market Restaurants, with four locations in the Bay Area and two in southern California all of which are all under investigation. It is expected that nearly three-hundred people will lose their jobs.
Management is taking steps to hire new employees in order to fill the gap in employment. However, it’s unlikely that the kitchen staff will soon be replaced by an equally capable group of workers; ones who will work under similar conditions and for similar wages while maintaining quality of service established by those who had perfected their craft at the Fish Market for years and in some cases decades.
For those who work at the restaurant as well as some of the restaurant’s regulars the event is heart breaking. The Fish Market family has received a huge blow, one that affects dozens of families. The mood at the restaurant is quite somber as people are forced to say goodbye to colleagues and friends. Few can find words to express how helpless the situation is.
Furthermore, the Fish Market is not the only restaurant that is in peril. Undocumented immigrants make up a large fraction of hospitality workers in California. They are the people that feed Silicon Valley. However, our policies do little to support these undocumented and more than often unnoticed people who have spent years of their life serving and supporting the burgeoning of our community.
Penned by Alina K. A. 