Hotel Executives Call for Immigration Reform

I listened to an interview on NPR tonight. On the Marketplace program Kai Ryssdal interviewed Bill Marriott of the Marriott hotel chain. It seems Mr. Marriott and five other major hotel executives have written an open letter to Congress calling for immediate immigration reform. (The other signers of the letter are: Matthew Hart of the Hilton chain, Stevan Porter of Intercontinental Hotels, Thomas Pritzker of Hyatt, Jonathan Tisch of Loews and Bruce Duncan of Starwood Hotels and Resorts.)

The letter can be read or downloaded here. (It's a PDF file.)

I am very skeptical. I don't trust rich CEOs. Especially ones that work in an industry that pays immigrant labor extremely substandard wages. I doubt any of these six men have problems putting food on the table or paying their mortgages. And it's primarily by paying their employees barely enough to survive that they are able to earn the exorbitant incomes I'm sure they all enjoy.

I'm suspicious, even though they want immigration reform for the right reasons. They want secure borders and a respect for the laws of the land. But they also call for paths to citizenship for people who want to stay in our country. It's hard to find fault with anything in the letter. They are asking Congress to do the right things to clean up the mess and stop some of the horrible abuses that so many people suffer in trying to find a better life in the United States of America.

Much of my suspicion stems from a comment Mr. Marriott made about not being able to fully open hotels because he can't hire enough people to properly prepare and clean the rooms. Well, I don't really see what this has to do with immigration except he doesn't want to hire "illegal" aliens - he wants the government to make them "legal" through the reforms he and his cohorts recommend. This skirts the issue of fair wages for the important work these people do. Immigrant labor will work cheap, so these hotel executives need a continual supply of desperate poof people in order to keep their operations going. I guess somehow the idea of an ongoing flow of cheap laborers makes more sense to them than paying people what they are worth. There are plenty of American citizens who need jobs, and I'll bet all things considered, working for a major hotel chain could be kind of nice. But not at $9 an hour when you have two kids to support.

So I think what these wealthy men have done is write a very intelligent, proper letter that addresses a serious problem. They have offered up reasonable solutions that should all be enacted. They come off looking like very proactive, concerned American business leaders who are fed up with politics and inaction. Bravo!

But it's hard to ignore their obvious ulterior motive. And the hubris they share to think no one will notice. When one of these white, wealthy men forgoes his multi-million dollar bonus to give a little extra to the people who make it possible for them to stay in business, I'll be the first to take back my skepticism and offer a "bravo" for real!