Louisiana’s Crawfish Industry Feels the Pinch of Limits on Foreign Workers

By Stephen Smith and Jack Brook

Associated Press

CROWLEY, La. -- Spring is peak season in Louisiana for crawfish, the hard-shelled star of outdoor parties. But a shortage of foreign workers is dampening the mood.

Deep in Louisiana's bayous, where crawfish production is a $300 million industry that is a key ingredient for backyard boils and buttery etouffees served in New Orleans' French Quarter, operators are fuming over labor struggles and pointing fingers at President Donald Trump's administration over what they say has been a failure to authorize enough guest foreign workers.

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