CHICAGO, November 4, 2025 – The National Restaurant Association is escalating its efforts to keep restaurants from losing workers to the Trump Administration's crackdown on undocumented immigrants, CEO Michelle Korsmo told a roomful of foodservice leaders this morning.
“We’re really leaning in on finding solutions, to get out of this intense policy that relies on ICE raids,” Korsmo said during a recap of governmental issues the association views as concerns for the industry. “It’s time for us to find legal pathways for our legal workforce to go to work with confidence because they have the legal authority to do so.”
The Association has pushed back before on the White House’s aggressive immigration policies. In a July letter to Trump, Korsmo urged the president to defer actions against undocumented restaurant employees who have shown themselves to be desirable citizens, paying taxes and obeying laws in all other respects.
She also asked Trump to work with Congress on a sweeping reform of the nation’s immigration system. The president’s mission of sealing the nation’s borders can be accommodated without denying immigrants a shot at a better life in the U.S., Korsmo wrote.
But her comments at the Presidents Conference, a gathering of high-level executives from the food-away-from-home industry, suggested that the association may be ready to push back harder.
The trade group recently commenced a research project aimed at gauging the impact of Trump’s immigration policy on association members.
Reports have surfaced widely of immigrant restaurant employees staying home because they fear being swept up in raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Media stories have recounted situations where foreign-born or dark-skinned American citizens have been wrongly apprehended. In other accounts, workers lacking permission to work in the U.S. have been detained and deported without family members left in the States being notified. Children and parents have also been separated and then detained.
Korsmo suggested that the first step would be developing a process for longtime undocumented residents to become citizens.
“Then we have to go in and fix the visa system,” said Korsmo, referring to the process for enabling immigrants to work for limited periods within the U.S. before returning to their homelands.
The final step would be comprehensive immigration reform, an endeavor so polarizing that it’s often called the third rail of politics.
“We’re pushing to get that to that discussion more quickly,” said Korsmo.
The impact of Trump’s heavy-handed crackdown on illegal immigration figured into several of the education sessions at the Presidents Conference.
Speakers attested that the effort is taking a toll on sales as well as the labor pool. Hispanic consumers are showing considerable reluctance to visit a restaurant because they could be apprehended by ICE on their trek there and back.
“All of us are feeling it,” said Liz Williams, CEO of the quick-service chicken chain El Pollo Loco.
She recounted how many of those frightened customers are switching to the drive-thru, since they don’t have to risk exposure by leaving their cars, and delivery.
The Presidents Conference draws more than 500 top-level executives of food manufacturing and foodservice companies for a discussion of the key issues affecting the industry. It is hosted annually in Scottsdale, Ariz., by IFMA The Food Away from Home Association.
As Managing Editor for IFMA The Food Away from Home Association, Romeo is responsible for generating the group's news and feature content. He brings more than 40 years of experience in covering restaurants to the position.
Cover image courtesy: Closed Loop Project