With Summer Almost Over, the Hamptons’ Largely Immigrant Workforce Worries About ICE Crackdowns

For the nearly 100 days between Memorial Day and Labor Day, businesses on the South Fork of Long Island run full tilt—caterers, builders, landscapers, restaurants. The workforce behind all of that is largely immigrants. So this year, amid President Donald Trump ’s ICE crackdown , locals are fearing for their families, their livelihoods, and for the local economy.

“We are on a countdown to Labor Day—it’s actually a day-to-day countdown,” says one owner of multiple restaurants in the Hamptons. “If we can make it to Labor Day with the staff we have we’ll survive,” this source says. “They literally hold the keys.”

“I kept all my staff,” the owner says. “But many of them were nervous about being deported.”

In June, fear over the nationwide deportation crackdown reached a fever pitch out