That trend is likely to accelerate. A recent Supreme Court ruling gives agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) greater leeway to question suspected undocumented immigrants. Reports of poor conditions in immigration detention centers and deportations to El Salvador and to countries where the deported had not lived previously, have likely heightened fears of detention and deportation. In combination, these factors will further the administration’s stated goal of causing undocumented immigrants to leave the United States voluntarily.
Many of those missing workers were in the hospitality industry and they need to be replaced. Even in times of high unemployment, native-born Americans able and willing to do this work have been in short supply.
Consequently, the time has arrived when hospitality employers may have to do what would have been unthinkable just a few years ago – rely heavily on the labor of children as young as 14. Youth represent a sizable and untapped labor reservoir. Youth unemployment, as of July 2025, was 10.8%, one full percentage point higher than a year...
“This has been one of the most difficult and traumatic periods of my life.” It’s pretty wild how quick a lawyer threatening a lawsuit can bring a person, company, whatever, to heel. And Ian Battri...