Trump’s immigration siege is rattling hospitality industry, workers say
Donald Trump’s immigration policies are having a chilling effect on the hospitality industry, where nearly a third of workers are immigrants, according to the largest hospitality union in the US.The number of employed hospitality workers dropped by 98,000 from December 2024 to December 2025, according to a report from Unite Here, which represents 300,000 workers across the hospitality, food and tourism industries in the US and Canada.Union leaders say the Trump administration’s brutal immigration crackdown has not only scared workers but has also discouraged international tourism.The US saw a decline of $1.2bn, or a 5.
5% drop, in tourism revenue from September 2024 to September 2025, according to the report.“We need immigrant workers.They’re an important part of our workforce.They’re my members, they’re my neighbors, and the way they’ve been treated in this time is really abhorrent,” said Wade Lüneburg, political director for Unite Here Local 17 in Minneapolis, which represents 6,000 workers in Minnesota, including workers at the Minneapolis-St Paul international airport.Because of the federal government’s immigration crackdown, “many of our members have been afraid to go to work,” Lüneburg said.
Sixteen airport workers were detained by immigration enforcement earlier this year, Lüneburg said.“These are workers that are authorized to work and passed TSA background checks,” he added.The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the White House did not comment on these members being taken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).Even as Minnesota seeks to recover from Operation Metro Surge, Trump’s immigration policies – from cancelling temporary protected status, expanding travel visa bans, to having tourists detained – have driven a slump in tourism across the US.International visitors to the US declined by 2.
5 million in 2025, even as international tourism increased around the world, according to Unite Here’s report.Lüneburg said regional declines of Canadian tourism to Minnesota drove a 15% decline in overall international air travelers to Minnesota in 2025 and a recent plunge in Canadians attending the World Junior Hockey championships.Small businesses in Minneapolis reportedly lost up to $81m in revenue in January 2026.“The economic ramifications of what is happening are much further-reaching than just to immigrants and their families, as horrific as that is,” said Gwen Mills, president of Unite Here, during a panel introducing the report last week.“The scenes of violence on the streets in our major cities, the anti-immigrant rhetoric, the fearmongering, it’s discouraging domestic travel, it’s discouraging foreign visitors from coming to the United States.
”The slowdown is being felt in other cities.In 2025, a record number of restaurants closed in Washington DC while restaurant openings slowed by 30%.Meanwhile, tourism in Las Vegas dropped 7.5% in 2025.Shaleah Taylor, a guest room attendant in Las Vegas, said in the report that “you can feel that business has slowed down.
”“People are spending less, and some of my co-workers who depend on tips are seeing a real drop,” Taylor said.Moana Molly, a hotel housekeeper in Atlantic City, New Jersey, said during the panel that several co-workers left due to the immigration crackdown, increasing the workload for herself and the remaining workers.“We don’t have the staffing that we need and nobody’s applying,” said Molly.A July 2025 report by the Economic Policy Institute found Trump’s deportation goals of 4 million people would result in job losses of 3.3 million for immigrants and 2.
6 million for US-born workers,But the policies are creating fear among US citizens, too,Greg Barney, a line cook at St Anselm in Washington DC, said there was a significant drop-off in visitors to the restaurant,“I wasn’t afraid about being scooped up myself, but a lot of my close friends were, and everyone, all my co-workers, regardless of whether they were born here or not, could feel that fear and that tension, and it was hard on all of us,” Barney said during the panel,Tricia McLaughlin, the DHS spokesperson, told the Guardian that “if there was any correlation between rampant illegal immigration and a good economy, Biden would have had a booming economy.
“Removing these criminals from the streets makes communities safer and more welcoming for business owners, customers, and for tourists,” she added.In an email to the Guardian, Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, cited an article that pointed to a 8.9% youth unemployment rate in 2024, saying “there is no shortage of American minds and hands to grow our labor force.”
Mikaela Shiffrin overcame grief, crashes and her own self-doubt to win slalom gold again
The greatest American skier of all time won her first Olympic medal in 2014. The 12 years in between have been marked by brutal ups and downsA lot can happen in 12 years. If you’re Mikaela Shiffrin, as a teenager you can become the youngest ever person to win the Olympic slalom, stack a couple more medals at the next Olympics, become the most successful World Cup skier of all time with a record 108 victories, go 10 more Olympic races in a row over three Winter Games without reaching the podium, overcome the two biggest crashes of your career and subsequent battles with self-doubt and post-traumatic stress disorder and eroding trust in your own skiing, and then bring it all back home with a second Olympic slalom gold.You can also lose your dad.Shiffrin, considered by many the greatest alpine skier in history, saw her incandescent career come full circle on Wednesday beneath the jagged limestone peaks above Cortina d’Ampezzo, winning her signature race by 1
‘Princess Anne thought I was Joe Marler’: Heyes mixed up in case of mistaken identity
Anyone who tuned in to the celebrity version of The Traitors last year will be familiar with the former England rugby player Joe Marler. With the exception, it turns out, of Princess Anne who was involved in a case of mistaken identity during the Calcutta Cup pre-match formalities at Murrayfield last Saturday.Clearly unaware Marler had retired from rugby 15 months ago, the Princess Royal stopped for a chat with her new favourite prop while being introduced to the England team in her role as patron of Scottish Rugby. She even confided how amusing she had found him on Celebrity Traitors, which would have been fine had the player in front of her been Marler rather than another bearded English front-rower, Joe Heyes.“She thought I was Joe Marler which was … quite upsetting,” said Heyes
Soft toys and a jagged edge: how Russia is circling the Winter Olympics
First came the reverberating cheers. Then a deluge of soft toys lobbed from the stands. But across the face of the brilliant Russian skater Adeliia Petrosian there was only the faintest of smiles. For now.So far at these Winter Olympics, a Russian is yet to win a medal
‘My DNA is in this car’: Lewis Hamilton revved up for Ferrari in new F1 season
Lewis Hamilton believes he is in the “best place” he has been at Ferrari, with a new car that carries his “DNA”.The seven-time champion failed to take a podium place for the first time and finished sixth in the drivers’ championship, behind his teammate Charles Leclerc in fifth in his debut season. By the end, he was clearly disenchanted, describing his first year at Ferrari as a “nightmare”.The Scuderia have looked promising in pre-season, and in Bahrain at the third and final test Hamilton, who has regrouped over the winter, presented a buoyant figure, optimistic about the forthcoming challenge.“I’ve gone through quite a bit and left everything, all of last year, behind me,” he said
Very good dog invades course but falls short of medal glory at Winter Olympics
A local dog has missed out on a historic cross-country medal at the Winter Olympics despite a lung-bursting surge in the homestretch.Nazgul, who according to NPR lives at a nearby hotel in Tesero, broke on to the course on Wednesday morning and sprinted for the line behind Croatia’s Tena Hadzic as she came to the end of the qualifying race for the women’s team cross-country sprint. Even if he had completed the entire race, Nazgul’s time would not have counted as he is male. And a dog.“I was like, ‘Am I hallucinating?” Hadzic said of her encounter with Nazgul, a Czechoslovakian wolfdog
Mikaela Shiffrin storms to stunning slalom gold to make Winter Olympic history
With one last chance to break her barren Olympic run stretching back eight years, Mikaela Shiffrin delivered in style. The 30-year-old American surged to victory in the women’s slalom on a sun-splashed Wednesday in the Dolomites with a two-run time of 1min 39.10sec, becoming the first US skier to win three Olympic gold medals.Switzerland’s Camille Rast, the reigning world champion and only woman to have beaten Shiffrin in her signature discipline this season, came in a yawning 1.50sec behind for the silver – the largest winning margin in any Olympic alpine skiing event since 1998 – while Anna Swenn-Larsson of Sweden took the bronze
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