USA TODAY reports that Marriott International CEO J.W. Marriott Jr., blasted hard line Republicans for their anti-immigration stance. The U.S. House on Tuesday approved legislation that would make criminals of illegal immigrants and employers who hire them, even unknowingly. The Senate has yet to debate the bill.
“Do you look upon yourselves as felons?” Marriott asked the crowd of more than 600 hotel executives and other travel industry leaders meeting here at the Global Travel & Tourism Summit.
Marriott said that hotels are one of the many industries in the USA that rely on immigrants to fill entry-level jobs, and those who take them often work their way up to better jobs.
“We just can’t get the work done without people from other nations,” he said.
In an interview after his speech, the hotel executive said that roughly half the people who work in the 2,400 Marriott hotels in the USA were born outside this country. Employees speak 47 different languages.
In related news, Magnani Continuum Marketing is the new agency of record for approximately 250 Marriott hotel properties situated in the massive hotel chain’s central region.
