How crucial is immigration for the US hotel industry?
By Doyinsola Oladipo
NEW YORK (Reuters) -A U.S. crackdown on foreign-born workers could spell trouble for the hotel and hospitality industry, which has lobbied for years to expand the pathways for immigration to the United States to help fill over 1 million job vacancies.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he would issue an immigration order soon, following a social media post in which he cited labor issues in the farm and hotel industries stemming from his immigration crackdown. But on Friday, the Washington Post reported that no such policy changes were under way, according to three people with knowledge of the administration's immigration policies.
IMMIGRATION AND HOSPITALITY
In 2024, travel supported the jobs of 15 million U.S. workers and directly employed 8 million, with approximately one-third of those workers immigrants, according to the U.S. Travel Association and American Hotel and Lodging Association. There are about 1 million job openings in 2025.
Hotels and resorts have struggled to find enough Americans willing to work hospitality jobs, including seasonal or temporary jobs at ski resorts and amusement parks. The leisure and hospitality industries have quit rates higher than all other industries. The accommodation and food services subsector has experienced a quit rate consistently around or above 4% since July 2022, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
About 71% of the hotels that had job openings were unable to fill them despite active searches, according to a 2024 survey conducted by AHLA and Hireology, an employee management platform.
LOBBYING EFFORTS
U.S. Travel and AHLA have lobbied Congress for broader pathways for legal immigration in an effort to close these gaps.
The industry's priority was to push for expanding the H-2B visa program, which was capped at 66,000 visas a year, to bring more seasonal workers to the United States.
In March 2024, then-President Joe Biden signed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, which authorizes the Department of Homeland Security to increase the number of H-2B temporary nonagricultural workers if the agency determines there are not enough American workers "willing, qualified, and able to perform temporary nonagricultural labor."
DHS and the Department of Labor in December published a joint temporary final rule increasing the limit on H-2B non-immigrant visas for fiscal year 2025.
The industry also supported legislation that looked to make it easier for temporary workers to return to the U.S. and allow people seeking asylum to work as soon as 30 days after applying for asylum.
EXECUTIVE AND UNION VIEWS
Industry executives, including those from Marriott and Hilton, have talked about the need for practical immigration solutions for years.
"One of the most important issues in our industry for time and eternity has been workforce ... and the need for comprehensive immigration reform," Hilton Worldwide CEO Chris Nassetta said at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit in January, according to a report by Travel Weekly.
Labor union Unite HERE, which represents thousands of workers in U.S. hotels, casinos, and airports, a majority of whom are immigrants, said the union will continue to fight "the increasingly arbitrary rules" about who can and cannot live and travel to the United States.
The Culinary Workers Union, which represents hospitality workers in Las Vegas, rallied against escalating Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Nevada and pushed back against claims the Trump administration was only responding to people breaking the law.
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