Chaus: Don’t punish Santa Clara County’s immigrant restaurant owners again

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors is preparing to debate a countywide proposal that once again unfairly targets local restaurants and immigrant business owners — piling new, unnecessary burdens on more than 1,600 small businesses already struggling to survive.

I know how damaging it can be when new regulations target one industry while leaving others untouched. It’s especially disheartening because the majority of owners are immigrants who already live with the daily fear of raids and growing hostility toward our communities. As someone who’s lived the journey from dishwasher to business owner, I’m urging the board to recognize that further targeting local restaurants is unjustified, and to reject this proposal.

My story is not unusual for immigrants in the 1980s, but it is significant. More than 30 years ago, I moved to the United States with nothing more than a dream to build a life. I knew it would be hard work, but I also knew I had the fortitude and discipline to make it happen. I started washing dishes at Taco Bell and worked my way up to general manager. After 16 years of saving, I was finally able to buy a restaurant of my own.

It would have seemed unimaginable that the young man driving cabs through the streets of India would one day be a business owner in California, creating opportunity for others chasing their own dreams.

Since then, I’ve grown my business to three restaurants across Santa Clara County — but for the first time in decades, I’m moving backward. The state’s new $20 minimum wage for fast-food workers under Assembly Bill 1228 has already forced me to close one location, and I’m not alone.

A recent survey found 98% of local restaurant owners have had to raise prices, nearly nine in 10 have reduced employee hours and 74% are more likely to shut down. Food prices are up 14.5% at California’s local restaurants and 34,000 fast-food jobs have been lost since last year’s wage hike.

AB 1228 also established the statewide Fast Food Council, a body specifically tasked with recommending industry-wide training and workplace standards similar to those being proposed here in Santa Clara County. For the county to create its own program now is premature, duplicative and a waste of limited resources.

Now, the board of supervisors is considering an unnecessary proposal that would create additional off-site, third-party training aimed solely at fast-food restaurants. This adds another layer of time-consuming regulations that don’t apply to any other industry, despite the extensive training requirements mandated under state and local law, when we already live under heightened scrutiny.

This proposal comes as the county asks voters to raise taxes, with officials anticipating losing more than $1 billion in federal funding. If the county is already struggling to meet basic needs, how can it justify launching a new, unnecessary program that will drain precious resources from both government and local businesses?

I came to Santa Clara County because it’s a place of opportunity. A place where immigrants could build something from nothing. But policies like this threaten to close those doors, especially for minority-owned small businesses that are already disproportionately impacted by rising costs and targeted regulations.

The reality is that most local restaurant owners are people of color, immigrants and women. We are the ones training and employing the next generation and reinvesting in our neighborhoods. And we are the ones being asked to carry the burden of yet another policy that doesn’t help us or our workers.

I hope the board of supervisors sees the damage this proposal would cause and stop it in its tracks. I hope Supervisors Susan Ellenberg and Betty Duong, who represent the districts where I live and work, will listen to the immigrant business owners most affected by this harmful proposal before it’s too late.

Altaf Chaus is a local restaurant owner and member of Protect Santa Clara Restaurants.