- Hotel hiring managers increased background check requests by 36 percent in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, according to Hireology, amid intensified federal immigration enforcement.
- The DHS reversed previous guidance in June, allowing ICE to resume workplace raids at farms, hotels and restaurants, sparking a wave of enforcement actions nationwide.
- Despite a 22 percent overall hiring increase across 1,000 hotel properties, frontline roles like housekeepers and cooks, heavily filled by immigrant workers, saw stagnant or minimal growth.
- Business leaders warn that the crackdown is worsening labor shortages in sectors dependent on foreign-born workers; 34 percent of housekeepers and 24 percent of cooks are immigrants, according to federal data.
- Under pressure to meet arrest targets, ICE has expanded operations, prompting both industry backlash and acknowledgment from President Donald Trump, who insists on deporting undocumented immigrants while attempting to shield certain industries.
U.S. hotel hiring managers have dramatically increased background checks in the first half of 2025 due to mounting pressure on the hospitality industry as federal immigration enforcement intensifies.
According to new data released by human resources platform Hireology, background check requests from hotel employers jumped 36 percent from January through June 2025 compared with the same period last year. In 2024, hotels directly employed more than 2.15 million people, according to the American Hotel and Lodging Association. This year, total hires across 1,000 hotel properties tracked by Hireology increased by 22 percent to over 8,000 workers, but growth in key roles such as front desk associates, housekeepers and cooks remained flat or saw only modest gains.
The stagnation in hiring for these frontline positions is notable, as many of these jobs are disproportionately filled by foreign-born workers. Census Bureau and Tourism Economics data show that 34 percent of housekeepers and 24 percent of cooks are immigrants.
"Companies are certainly far more cognizant of that than they've ever been, and they don't want to be caught up in or be accused of lax hiring practices when it comes to verification of immigration status," said Patrick Scholes, a Truist hotel equity analyst. (Related: Trump calls for FEMA to be abolished after agency blows $59 million on luxury hotels for migrants.)
ICE raids trigger spike in hotel background checks
The ramping up on background checks comes amid a new wave of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids and heightened immigration enforcement under the second term of President Donald Trump.
In June, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced it would no longer uphold prior restrictions that discouraged ICE from conducting workplace raids at sites such as farms, hotels and restaurants. Agency officials instructed teams to resume worksite enforcement operations immediately.
"Worksite enforcement remains a cornerstone of our efforts to safeguard public safety, national security and economic stability," DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in June. "These operations target illegal employment networks that undermine American workers, destabilize labor markets and expose critical infrastructure to exploitation."
ICE has since carried out operations at a construction company in Exeter, Pennsylvania, multiple sites in Brownsville, Texas, and a federally funded flood control project in New Orleans. Around 40 individuals were arrested last month in sweeps across Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, two wealthy Massachusetts vacation spots.
Business leaders, particularly in agriculture and hospitality, argued that the crackdown is removing essential workers from jobs that are already difficult to fill.
Trump acknowledged the complaints. "Our great Farmers and 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, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace," the persident posted on his Truth Social platform. "We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!"
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