2 days ago
Immigration crackdown impacts Myrtle Beach tourism industry
HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) — As the White House cracks down on immigration, the head of a local immigration services agency claims hotels and restaurants in the Grand Strand are taking a hit, due to a shortage of cleaning staff.
Based in Myrtle Beach, A&B Immigration Services assists immigrants on their paths to citizenship, and helps local companies hire seasonal employees during peak tourist season. Most companies A&B works with hire cleaning staff for hotels and restaurants.
The owner of A&B, who chose to remain anonymous, told News13 there is not only an uptick in deportations, but also in visa denials.
'The small businesses, like the staffing companies and cleaning companies, they have suffered significant loss. Owners are even closing up their businesses and are looking for employment themselves, because they depend on the international workers during the peak seasons,' she said. 'We noticed this year that a lot of the individuals, whether they're J-1 and H-2b workers that are applying for the work visas overseas, that at the US embassies, there's an uptick in denials.'
She emphasized that A&B encourages taking a legal path to citizenship, and claims the immigration crackdown has put up more barriers for legal immigration.
'We dealt with having workers come to the United States legally and going home, and [the immigration crackdown] has an effect on it. [In] a lot of immigration situations, you're talking about undocumented, but it's not only undocumented, it's immigration as a whole,' she said. 'People who are trying to get here legally, they're unable to because of the climate.'
The owner of A&B Immigration said because some hotels are struggling to hire cleaning staff, it's become difficult for them to accommodate the number of people booking rooms. A News13 reporter spoke with a hotel manager on Ocean Boulevard, who said there is an 'everything shortage' in the hospitality industry.
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Shelby Martin is a multimedia journalist who joined the News13 team in May 2025. Shelby is from Orange County, California, and graduated in 2023 from California State University, Fullerton. You can read more of her work here.
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