Support for jobs = support for people
Most people – on both sides of the aisle – support jobs. It is one thing we can agree on. Granted, you might view individual policy decisions one way if you are a Republican, and another way if you register as a Democrat – but both sides generally support jobs and recognize that a good job supports our communities and gives people a path forward. It is impossible to support jobs without supporting people; being pro-jobs means being pro-people.
As you may have heard, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals just ruled that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is unlawful and sent the case challenging the DACA policy back to the district court that originally ruled to end DACA.
This news is frankly a terrible and deeply disappointing decision that makes even more apparent the fate of DACA in the courts–and that without legislation protecting DACA recipients passing in 2022, we will almost certainly see nearly 700,000 DACA recipients lose work authorization, protection deportation and their lives thrown into chaos shortly.
The common belief is that a negative decision from the district court or, in the future, the Supreme Court, is possible, even likely. If a court decides to end the DACA policy, including barring renewals, DACA recipients will immediately begin losing their deportation protections and their ability to work. An average of 5,000 DACA recipients will lose their protections every week for the next two years if renewals are halted—that’s 1,000 jobs lost, and 1,000 U.S. citizens whose family members will be exposed to deportation, every business day. This is horrifying for DACA recipients, their loved ones, and communities across the country, including Eagle County and the mountain region.
Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh said it loud and clear: Business leaders support immigration reform, and reform will be critical to the country’s workforce, reports Eric Rosenbaum of CNBC.
“We need a bipartisan fix here. I’ll tell you right now if we don’t solve immigration … we’re talking about worrying about recessions, we’re talking about inflation. [But] I think we’re going to have a bigger catastrophe if we don’t get more workers into our society, and we do that by immigration,” Walsh said.
Meanwhile, a new study by the National Bureau of Economic Research shows that “temporary work visas allow firms to expand and hire more U.S. workers,” Stuart Anderson writes in Forbes. A survey of businesses that participated in the 2021 H-2B visa lottery “reveals little benefit, and substantial costs, due to restricting firms’ access to these visas,” the report’s authors write. ” …
“[G]aining access to immigrant hires raises firm revenues . . . and also weakly raises, rather than lowers, their employment of U.S. workers.”
They add that increasing the availability of H-2B visas permanently would spur even greater benefits for American workers, businesses, and the economy.
Paging Congress and the administration, Republicans and Democrats: We need immigration solutions to fight inflation, help American workers, and strengthen our economy. And Americans want reforms this year.
At this point, the only way to avoid this moral and economic disaster is for Congress to act. Congress must fix immigration and protect Dreamers with a pathway to citizenship. It would be disastrous to wait until another court decision before going in on a full legislative push – not only is control of Congress uncertain, but it is incredibly cruel to put millions of Dreamers and their families through any more uncertainty and it is incredibly negligent to not support our business community through H2B reform.
Chris Romer is president & CEO of Vail Valley Partnership, the regional chamber of commerce. Learn more at VailValleyPartnership.com