Hotels are caught in a political and economic tug-of-war

Travel Weekly

6 hours ago

The Trump administration's immigration crackdown collided with economic reality when the president acknowledged that U.S. hotels are losing workers whose jobs are "almost impossible to replace."
President Trump posted on his Truth Social site on June 12 that along with farmers, "people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them" and added that "Changes are coming!"
Those changes came but were short-lived.
Media outlets reported that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official had directed regional leaders to halt investigations at agricultural operations, restaurants and hotels two days after Trump's post. But by June 17, the Department of Homeland Security had reversed the guidance, telling staff that agents must resume conducting immigration raids at hotels, restaurants and farms, according to the Washington Post.
Industry insiders say the policy whiplash underscores the administration's struggle to balance mass-deportation goals with economic pressures.
"Mass deportations can't coexist with a strong economy," said Gwen Mills, president of Unite Here, a labor union that represents 300,000 workers, primarily across the hotel, food service and gaming sectors. "Agricultural businesses, meatpacking plants, restaurants and hotels can't survive without immigrants. The same is true for many other vital national industries."
Mills emphasized that the current enforcement approach puts many American industries "at risk of collapse."
Even when the workplace exemptions were briefly on the table, immigration law experts questioned their effectiveness.
"President Trump's announcement that he [would] exempt hotels from his immigration crackdown means very little," said Stephen Yale-Loehr, a retired immigration law professor at Cornell Law. "Even if hotel workers are 'safe' at work, they could be picked up at home or on their way to or from work."
ICE arrests surging
The policy reversals come as ICE arrests have more than doubled from an average of 310 per day in fiscal year 2024, during the early months of the Trump administration, to around 660 per day, according to Julia Gelatt, associate director of the Migration Policy Institute's U.S. immigration policy program.
She said that more recent reports, however, indicate daily ICE arrest numbers have started to exceed 2,000. (In late May, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller announced that the administration had set a goal of 3,000 arrests per day.)
"On the one hand, they're being given daily arrest quotas," Gelatt said. "On the other hand, they're being told that they can't do arrests in certain kinds of places. So that does create a contradiction."
Beyond the enforcement raids, Gelatt said the administration has eliminated temporary legal protections for more than a million people, including those with humanitarian parole and other protected-status designations, creating additional workforce pressures.
"A lot of people who have work authorization are now losing that authorization, and employers would need to lay them off," Gelatt said, adding that hotels are likely keeping a close eye on potential changes to temporary visa programs.
Areas with a lot of seasonal tourism, like Alaska and ski resorts, rely on temporary visas like the H-2B and J-1 visas. Gelatt said that while there haven't been any changes with those visa holders, the potential for an expanded travel ban and the pause in the processing of some student visas are concerns. "If we see more changes on the temporary visa front, that could have an impact," she said.
The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA), which represents more than 32,000 lodging property members in the U.S., is among the industry groups that have engaged directly with the administration.
"Since President Trump took office, we've held numerous meetings with administration officials to convey our acute workforce shortage challenges and underscore the importance of a strong hospitality and tourism sector," said AHLA CEO Rosanna Maietta.
The Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA), which has approximately 20,000 lodging industry members, was more critical of the administration's policies.
"AAHOA members support strong enforcement against violent criminals -- especially those here illegally," said CEO Laura Lee Blake. "But broad crackdowns risk disrupting the hardworking, law-abiding individuals who power America's hotels. As we have said before: Deport the dangerous, support the dependable."
David Sherwyn, academic director of the Cornell Center for Innovative Hospitality Labor and Employment Relations, said the current climate reflects a broader shift in national rhetoric, which since the Eisenhower era has generally celebrated America as a nation of immigrants. The hospitality industry, however, continues to embrace its diverse workforce, he said.
"We're an industry of immigrants. We're an industry of different religions, different sexual orientations, we welcome everybody," Sherwyn said. "And that's what makes us a great industry."