By Doyinsola Oladipo
NEW YORK () – A potential tightening of regulations regarding foreign-born employees might pose challenges for the hotel and hospitality sector. This industry has long advocated for expanding immigration avenues into the United States to address more than 1 million unfilled positions.
President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he plans to introduce an immigration directive shortly after posting about workforce problems in agriculture and hospitality sectors due to his immigration enforcement measures. However, on Friday, the Washington Post stated that no such modifications to current policies were being considered, as asserted by three individuals familiar with the administration’s stance on immigration matters.
IMMIGRATION AND HOSPITALITY
In 2024, travel sustained the employment of 15 million U.S. workers, out of which around 8 million were direct employees. Immigrants made up roughly one-third of these workers, as reported by the U.S. Travel Association and American Hotel and Lodging Association. The industry anticipates approximately 1 million job vacancies in 2025.
Hotels and resorts have had difficulty attracting sufficient numbers of Americans to fill positions within the hospitality sector, such as seasonal roles at ski lodges and theme parks. The leisure and hospitality sectors exhibit resignation rates surpassing those of all other industries. Data from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce indicates that the segment encompassing accommodations and food services has maintained a quitting rate persistently at or over 4% starting from July 2022.
According to a 2024 survey by AHLA and Hireology, an employee management platform, approximately 71% of hotels with open positions couldn’t find suitable candidates even though they were actively looking.
LOBBYING EFFORTS
The U.S. Travel Association and AHLA have advocated for Congress to expand avenues for lawful immigration with the aim of addressing these shortages.
The main focus of the sector was to advocate for an increase in the cap of the H-2B visa program, currently limited to 66,000 visas annually, with the aim of bringing additional seasonal laborers into the country.
In March 2024, President Joe Biden signed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act. This legislation permits the Department of Homeland Security to expand the number of H-2B temporary non-agricultural workers. The act allows this expansion if the department finds that there aren’t sufficient U.S.-based workers who are “available, qualified, and willing” for such temporary work roles.
In December, DHS along with the Department of Labor released a shared temporary final regulation that raised the cap on H-2B non-immigrant visas for fiscal year 2025.
The sector backed laws aimed at simplifying the process for temporary employees to re-enter the U.S., along with provisions enabling individuals applying for asylum to start working within just one month of submitting their application.
EXECUTIVE AND UNION VIEWS
Leaders from companies like Marriott and Hilton have discussed the necessity of implementing realistic immigration policies for many years now.
“The foremost concern in our sector for both the present and the future revolves around staffing…and the necessity for thorough immigration reform,” stated Chris Nassetta, CEO of Hilton Worldwide, during the Americas Lodging Investment Summit in January, as reported by Travel Weekly.
The labor union Unite HERE, representing numerous employees in American hotels, casinos, and airports—most of whom are immigrants—stated that they will keep fighting against the “increasingly capricious regulations” governing who has permission to reside in or visit 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.
(Reporting by Doyinsola Oladipo in New York; additional reporting by Aishwarya Jain in Bengaluru; editing by Rod Nickel)
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