CHICAGO — One of the key promises President Donald Trump made during his 2024 campaign was to “crack down on illegal immigration.”
On day one of his term, the president signed several executive orders that called for increased immigration enforcement, potential travel bans, enhanced deportation priorities, increased scrutiny during the travel visa process, and more.
The administration’s immigration policy has made it more challenging for businesses, including industrial laundries, to retain and hire foreign-born employees.
After hearing from several laundry operators about the topic, American Laundry News examined some of the policy changes that were enacted, their immediate effects, and how industrial laundries are handling the challenges.
(Note: This article is for informational purposes only. For advice on your specific situation, consult your attorney of choice.)
IMMIGRATION POLICY CHANGES AND BUSINESS EFFECTS (Part 1)
Laura Foote Reiff is a shareholder at the Greenberg Traurig law firm in the Northern Virginia/Washington, D.C., area, and has more than 35 years of experience representing businesses and organizations in the business immigration and compliance field. She is on the board of the National Forum and chairs the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Immigration Subcommittee.
During her recent National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) webinar, “How Small Businesses Should Prepare for Stricter Immigration Enforcement,” she shared some of what’s been happening in terms of immigration policies and their effects on businesses.
Reiff points out that since the current Trump administration has come into office, it is fulfilling some of its promises regarding immigration with executive orders that do impact businesses, including industrial laundry operations.
“There has definitely been increased scrutiny of petitions that have been filed for visas,” she says. “There has obviously been increased vetting of foreign nationals who are in our country. There have been some delays in visa issuance as staff is turned over at the different agencies, and there have been additional vetting mechanisms put in place.
“During the first Trump administration, there was a heavy emphasis on buying American and hiring American workers, and that has been reintroduced in ‘Trump 2.0.’ As we all know, hiring U.S. workers is something we all want to do, but sometimes we need to hire foreign workers, but that is an emphasis of this administration.”
The administration has been expediting the removal of individuals in the United States, Reiff shares. It has also been revoking certain programs that were introduced during previous administrations.
“Some of these are temporary protected status (TPS) programs,” she says. “Some of them are humanitarian parole programs. Some of them are asylum programs that were instituted. Those are being rolled back. Some of them are being challenged, but there are a significant number of people in the U.S. workforce now who had those types of statuses.
“Somewhere between 6 (million) and 9 million people are under threat of losing that status, and that can impact our businesses, because some of (these individuals) are lawfully authorized to work right now but may not be in the future. That destabilizing of the workforce is something that we need to be concerned about because we want to keep a workforce that we need, but we also want to make sure we’re compliant with immigration laws.”
Some general impacts of these executive orders and actions early on in the current Trump administration are increased immigration raids and audits for I-9 compliance and what’s happening as a result of them, Reiff says.
“There’s an impact on these humanitarian programs, people who have applied for political asylum, people who are Ukrainians who are here for you, people who are in the process of getting political asylum from Afghanistan,” she shares. “The Cuba-Haiti-Nicaragua-Venezuela humanitarian parole program. A lot of these programs are in the crosshairs now and will result in people being ineligible to work in the United States, ultimately.”
Reiff expects some global impact on foreign national travel.
“You’re already seeing people who may be in your workforce ask you whether it makes sense for them to leave the country,” she says. “Sometimes that answer is ‘no’ if they fear that they’re going to have problems getting back in. We are already seeing some of our members, especially of the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition’s membership, experiencing some workforce shortages, and nursing homes and the construction industry, but those shortages are already starting to be felt more acutely.”
Reiff points out that it’s important to try to be compliant, to stay on top of what’s going on with the current administration.
“If you do have sponsored employees, people who you have sponsored as an employer, you should look at filing their extensions with Homeland Security early,” she says. “You should anticipate if they do travel that there’s going to be some delays in getting visas issued.
“Those foreign students who are on your payroll, they need to be working closely with their foreign student advisers to make sure that they’re still eligible for work authorization, and you’re still eligible to hire them.
“I think now even more so than the first Trump administration, we need to be on top of our immigration portfolio and those people who are sponsored or are on some kind of work visa or … employment authorization document.”
Check back Tuesday as Reiff shares about the importance for employers to fill out forms properly and to know how to work with ICE.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Matt Poe at [email protected].
