In a letter sent yesterday to President Trump and the Secretaries of Agriculture, Homeland Security, and Labor, Congressman Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX) requested that the Administration release visas to shrimp vessel owners with approved H-2B Temporary Labor Certifications who were denied work visas under existing caps. Congressman Gonzalez’s letter explained that the American shrimp industry is already confronting an existential crisis “due to unfair competition from foreign imports, combined with severe labor shortages, and increased fuel prices,” and that shrimpers in the 34th Congressional District of Texas and elsewhere have been unable to secure visas for needed crewmembers in advance of the July opening of federal waters off the Texas coast to commercial shrimping.
According to NOAA Fisheries, although 65.2 million pounds of shrimp worth $185 million were landed in Texas in 2021, in 2024, the volume of Texas state landings fell by over a third to 42.7 million pounds, with the value of this shrimp dropping by 57 percent to just $80 million in the wake of a flood of unfairly-traded, cheap, farmed shrimp imports. After the imposition of new antidumping and countervailing duty trade relief and the implementation of aggressive trade policy by President Trump, the Texas shrimp industry showed signs of significant recovery in 2025, with preliminary numbers released by NOAA Fisheries indicating a roughly 10 percent increase in the volume of shrimp landed in Texas last year.
Now, however, vessel operators in south Texas have been denied scores of H-2B visas for crewmen, many of whom have long histories of working in the fishery. Without workers, boats will remain tied up, as they did when low import prices forced dockside values below the cost of production in 2023 and 2024. As this recent history demonstrates, these circumstances remove over $100 million in shrimp from Texas’s economy, causing direct harm to all Texan businesses that add value to the shrimp before it reaches American consumers.
Congressman Gonzalez’s request was made a week after meeting with the Texas Shrimp Association about the severe labor shortages being experienced by the Texas fleet.
“The U.S. shrimp industry is grateful to Congressman Gonzalez for drawing the Administration’s attention to the plight of the south Texas shrimp fleet,” said Blake Price, Director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance. “For many years, shrimp boats in Texas have been crewed by experienced fishermen with H-2B visas and been important contributors to the region’s coastal economy. Without access to the H-2B visa program, these boats cannot work and communities will suffer.”
Review Congressman Vicente Gonzalez’s (D-TX) Press Release, Congressman Gonzalez Urges Trump Admin to Protect Gulf Coast Shrimping Industry as House Passes Save Our Shrimpers Act (May 13, 2026) here: https://gonzalez.house.gov/media/press-releases/congressman-gonzalez-urges-trump-admin-protect-gulf-coast-shrimping-industry
Read Congressman Gonzalez’s May 13 letter to President Trump, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, and Labor Acting Secretary Keith Sonderling here: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/05.13.2026-letter-to-potus-and-administration-on-h-2b-visas-for-tx-gulf-shrimpers-1.pdf