Hospitality’s immigrant quandary

“The restaurant and hotel industries may have the most at stake in this political battle. Industry leaders acknowledge their fundamental economics are built upon a labor pool that is one-third immigrants. And about 10 percent to 12 percent of the 55,000 legal immigrants employed by the local hotels and food service operations are believed to be illegal, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

Those industries are closely following the progress of immigration reform.

“It would cripple our industry, in our opinion, if they make anyone who has not come legally leave,” said Peter Christie, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association. “We’re labor-intensive, and many of these entry-level jobs — dishwasher, maintenance, bussers, chambermaids, landscapers, painters, anything that takes labor — young people today don’t want those jobs, and people coming from foreign countries are grateful to have them.”"

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