Advocacy News – April 27, 2023
The Michigan Chamber announced this week that it will join a group of state, local and regional chambers and other organizations in support of advancing bipartisan legislative solutions on immigration reform and border security at the federal level.
The group is calling on Congress to pursue policy solutions to encourage and support responsible and well-planned legal immigration to help strengthen Michigan’s economy and protect our nation’s borders, including:
- Increasing the human, physical and technological resources along our borders and ports of entry;
- Instituting modern, effective and efficient employment verification reforms;
- Significantly increasing the annual quotas for employment-based immigrant and nonimmigrant visas;
- Expanding the scope of essential worker programs, specifically allowing employers to meet temporary labor needs in non-seasonal jobs; and
- Creating new visa options for entrepreneurs and other high-demand workers to help American employers meet their critical workforce needs.
The coalition is being organized by the US Chamber. There are over 425 business organizations across the nation engaged including fellow Michigan members include the Grand Rapids Area Chamber, the Detroit Regional Chamber, the Saginaw County Chamber, the Battle Creek Area Chamber, the Lansing Regional Chamber and the Greater Niles Chamber.
The coalition believes today’s immigration system is broken and in need of repair to help with our state’s declining population numbers and workforce challenges. The Numbers Tell a Discouraging Tale:
- Michigan is a declining population state. According to the latest US Census data, our state’s population was estimated to be 10,034,113 residents as of July of 2022, down over 43,212 residents since April of 2020. This means less residents to fill available jobs.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics data tells us there are approximately 5.9 million workers unemployed nationally and 9.9 million job openings. As the number of job openings continues to exceed the number of unemployed workers, employers will have little choice but to look beyond the native workforce.
- The U.S. can’t meet demand for seasonal workers. In December of 2022, the US Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor jointly published a temporary final rule increasing the cap on H-2B nonimmigrant visas by up to 64,716 additional vias for fiscal year 2023 for businesses that “are suffering irreparable harm or will.” The lack of H-2B visas matching demand affects restaurants and the hospitality industry, construction, amusement and recreation, landscaping, forestry, meat and fish processing, among others, many of which are small businesses.
- The U.S. can’t meet demand for high-skilled workers either. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services holds an annual random lottery to reach the annual cap of 85,000 H-1B visas. Since the introduction of the online registration process in 2020, employer submissions have surpassed that cap each year. Registrations jumped from roughly 274,000 in the online system’s first year to more than 483,000 in 2022.
These issues can only be addressed by congressional action but national efforts to “comprehensively” confront America’s immigration challenges have all met with failure. What has shown more promise in attracting the bipartisan support that will be necessary to make law are efforts that seek to combine subsets of policies to improve border security with policies that will improve the operation of our legal immigration system.
Ultimately, elected officials will have to negotiate what can secure the necessary votes in both Houses of Congress and the President’s signature. But the Michigan Chamber will work with the coalition and other federal partners to pass sensible changes to secure our borders, avert further humanitarian crises and meet the workforce needs of our state and nation.
Please contact Wendy Block with questions at wblock@michamber.com.