Issues - Legislation

  • An Immigration Commission?
    The debate about comprehensive immigration reform has taken a new turn in 2009. Driven in part by the recession and by concern about unemployment among American workers, some reform advocates are advancing the idea that immigration quotas should be set by a commission made up of experts and stakeholders.

    IW shares the concern for unemployed U.S. workers and believes employers should make every effort to hire Americans before they consider foreign workers. But we are skeptical of proposals to set immigration quotas by commission.

    We do not believe the economic data is available that would allow a commission of experts or stakeholders to make real-time decisions about where we need immigrants and where they would most benefit the economy - what economic sectors or what regions of the country. We're also skeptical that it would be possible to insulate a commission from political influence - and nothing would be worse than a politicized body that was not accountable to voters.

    As business owners, we believe that 21st century immigration is driven largely by market forces. We think it's a mistake for the U.S. government to try to fight the dynamism of the world economy - we believe immigration ceilings should be designed to accommodate the influx determined by supply and demand. And we believe the test of any body charged with setting quotas, whether Congress or a commission, should be how well it aligns those ceilings with the fluctuations of U.S. labor-market needs.

    Would a commission make our immigration system more responsive to the market - or less? If the answer is less, it's a bad idea - for immigrants, employers and the American economy.

    RESOURCES

    ImmigrationWorks, Future flow talking points

    Economic Policy Institute, Immigration for Shared Prosperity - A Framework for Comprehensive Reform, April 2009

    AFL-CIO and Change to Win, Unified Immigration Reform Framework, April 2009

    Migration Policy Institute, Harnessing the Advantages of Immigration for a 21st Century Economy, May 2009
  • Comprehensive Reform
    Only the federal government can fix what's wrong with the immigration system - and any federal fix must include three indispensible elements.
    • Match visa supply with U.S. labor needs. Every year, economic need draws some 1.5 million foreign workers to the United States, but the government issues only approximately one million new immigrant visas. The result: a full third of the foreign workers we need to sustain the economy enter the country illegally.

      Unless demographic trends shift abruptly, U.S. labor needs will continue to attract foreign workers to our shores. Far better for Americans if these workers enter the country legally. An increased supply of worker visas must be the centerpiece of any immigration reform - effective immigration enforcement will be impossible without it.
    • Restore the rule of law through effective enforcement. The U.S. must regain control of who enters the country. The government must add manpower and technology on the border. It must create an accurate, reliable electronic employment verification system. And it must impose tough sanctions against employers who continue to hire unauthorized workers when an adequate supply of authorized workers becomes available.
    • Address workers already here. More than 20 years of unrealistic immigration quotas have produced a vast unauthorized population living amongst us and vital to the economy but beyond the rule of law. Amnesty is not an acceptable answer for this group, but neither is mass deportation or attrition through enforcement. We must deal realistically with these workers and their families - vet them for security purposes, bring them under the rule of law, require them to pay taxes and encourage them to participate in American society.
    RESOURCES

    Tamar Jacoby, "Not Another Generation," America’s Quarterly, Summer 2008

    Tamar Jacoby, "Immigration Nation," Foreign Affairs, November/December 2006

    National Immigration Forum, "Comprehensive Reform of Our Immigration Laws."

    American Immigration Lawyers Association, "Comprehensive Immigration Reform," 2008.

    Immigration Policy Center, "A Congressional Guide to Immigration."

    Migration Policy Institute, "Immigration and America's Future: a New Chapter,"" 2006.

    Dan Griswold, "Willing Workers: Fixing the Problem of Illegal Mexican Migration to the United States," Cato Institute, October 2002.
  • E-Verify
    No one will benefit more than employers from an immigration overhaul that restores the rule of the law in the workplace. The overwhelming majority of employers want to be on the right side of the law - it's their obligation as citizens, and it makes good business sense. ImmigrationWorks strongly supports effective workplace enforcement as a centerpiece of comprehensive immigration reform.

    Employers need the federal government to provide them with the means to verify employees' identities and work authorization by comparing workers' identity documents with information in federal databases - either an improved E-Verify system or a similar program that achieves the same end.

    The program must be timely, efficient and accurate. It should be phased in on a realistic timetable and as part of a broader reform package that provides employers with a legal supply of the foreign workers they need to sustain and grow their businesses.

    E-Verify has the makings of such a system, but it needs improvement. Before the federal government considers mandating it for all employers, DHS must improve the program’s tentative non-confirmation error rates, reduce delays and improve procedures for secondary screening. In the meantime, Congress should continue to reauthorize E-Verify on a voluntary basis.

    ImmigrationWorks opposes efforts by state and local governments to mandate E-Verify in their jurisdictions. The inevitable result - a conflicting patchwork of local laws - is confusing for employers and immigrants, impedes commerce and may be unconstitutional.

    RESOURCES

    Institute for the Study of International Migration, Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, "Worksite Solutions To Unauthorized Immigration," October 2007.

    U.S. Government Accountability Office, "Employment Verification: Challenges Exist in Implementing a Mandatory Electronic Employment Verification System," June 2008.

    Immigration Policy Center, "Deciphering The Numbers On E-Verify's Accuracy," February 2009.

    Migration Policy Institute, "Eligible To Work? Experiments In Verifying Work Authorization," November 2005.

    National Immigration Law Center, "Facts About Basic Pilot/E-Verify," October 2008.

    Other Resources

    E-Verify Bookshelf
  • Federal Preemption
    Regulating immigration is a federal prerogative. The Constitution, case law and the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act place the burden squarely on the U.S. Congress, not state and local governments.

    In recent years, congressional inaction has led many state and local jurisdictions to take matters into their own hands. The resulting patchwork of laws and ordinances confuses employers and immigrants, impedes commerce and may be unconstitutional.

    ImmigrationWorks USA supports passage of new federal legislation clarifying and strengthening federal supremacy in the making of immigration law. It also supports state legislation preempting local ordinances on immigration matters.

    BACKGROUND

    Article 7 of the U.S. Constitution - the Supremacy Clause - prohibits states and municipalities from passing laws at odds with federal statutes. The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act explicitly strengthened the federal prerogative over immigration law and sharply limited state and local authorities' ability to sanction employers who hire unauthorized foreign workers. The one exception: a seven-word parenthesis in the 1986 act gave states some leeway in using business licensing to regulate the hiring of immigrants - a loophole that has been widely exploited in recent years by states seeking to crack down on employers.

    Business owners across the country have challenged this trend, arguing that states have gone further than the law or the Constitution permits. Cases from Arizona, Oklahoma, Farmers Branch, TX and Hazelton, PA are making their way through federal courts, and one or more is widely expected to reach the Supreme Court in coming years.

    RESOURCES

    Monica Guizar, National Immigration Law Center, "Facts About Federal Preemption," June 2007.

    Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads, "State/Local Enforcement Of Federal Immigration Law: Illegal And Impractical," February 2009.

    American Immigration Lawyers’ Association, "Navigating The Immigration Debate: A Guide For State & Local Policymakers & Advocates," updated January 2009.

    ImmigrationWorks USA, State Immigration Law.
  • Worker Visas
    Many lawmakers think the answer to the economic downturn is to cut worker visa programs or make them more difficult to use. This is a mistake - a misunderstanding of U.S. labor needs and of the role of immigrant workers in sustaining jobs for Americans.

    The recession does nothing to change the fundamental demographic and educational shifts driving 21st century America's need for foreign workers: declining U.S. fertility rates, escalating baby-boom retirement, an ever more educated domestic workforce, lagging interest among American students in science and engineering.

    Even in the recession, many employers still can't find the workers they need to sustain their businesses. Few native-born workers are applying for low-level jobs in agriculture, food processing or home health care. Few seem interested in traveling to do seasonal work.

    Visa programs must be carefully designed to guard against abuses and adverse effects on the U.S. workforce. But if anything, foreign workers often help keep American workers employed. Every H-2B crab picker on Maryland's Eastern shore supports 2.5 jobs for native-born workers. Every farm job in the U.S. - many filled by foreign workers on H-2A visas - sustains 3.5 non-farm jobs. And with every H-1B visa issued, American technology companies create 5 jobs for other workers.

    The U.S. will need even more worker visas when the economy begins to recover.

    ImmigrationWorks opposes cuts to existing temporary worker programs. It opposes legislation, such as the H1B-visa reform proposed by Sens. Dick Durbin and Charles Grassley, that would make existing programs more bureaucratic or costly. On the contrary, IW supports streamlining these programs and making them more transparent and easy to use. It supports the returning worker exemption for H2B visa holders. And it is skeptical of a union-backed plan that would create a commission to set visa quotas.

    RESOURCES

    Dan Griswold, "Willing Workers: Fixing the Problem of Illegal Mexican Migration to the United States," Cato Institute, October 2002.

    National Foundation For American Policy, "Making The Transition From Illegal To Legal," November 2003.

    Center for American Progress, "Replacing The Undocumented Workforce," March 2006.

    AgJOBS

    Letter to Sen. Diane Feinstein from ImmigrationWorks USA IW AGJOBS LETTER

    H-1B

    American Immigration Lawyers' Association, "Highly Educated Foreign Professionals: Vital To U.S. Competitiveness," May 2008.

    National Foundation for American Policy, Policy Brief, "Driving Jobs And Innovation Offshore: The Impact Of High-Skill Immigration Restrictions On America," December 2007.

    H-2A

    American Farm Bureau Federation, Backgrounder, "Ensure A Legal Workforce," March 2009.

    Dr. James S. Holt, "Farm Labor Shortages And The Economic Evidence Of The Declining Competitiveness Of U.S. Fruit And Vegetable Producers: A White Paper," April 2009.

    H-2B

    American Immigration Lawyers' Association, "H-2B Seasonal And Temporary Workers Vital To America’s Small And Seasonal Businesses," May 2008.

    SaveSmallBusiness.Org, "The H-2B Program: Separating Myth From Reality," Spring 2008.