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Testimony
United States Senate Committee on the
Judiciary
The Need for Comprehensive Immigration Reform: Serving Our
National Economy
May 26, 2005
Thomas J. Donohue
President & CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Statement of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
ON: "THE NEED FOR COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM: SERVING
OUR NATIONAL ECONOMY"
TO: U.S. SENATE SUBCOMMITTEE ON IMMIGRATION, BORDER SECURITY
AND CITIZENSHIP OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
BY: THOMAS J. DONOHUE
DATE: MAY 26, 2005
The Chamber's mission is to advance human progress through
an economic, political and social system based on individual
freedom, incentive, initiative, opportunity and responsibility.
Statement On The Need for Comprehensive Immigration Reform:
Serving Our National Economy Before the U.S. Senate Committee
on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security
and Citizenship
By Thomas J. Donohue
President and CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
May 26, 2005
2:30 pm
Mr. Chairman, thank you for inviting me to speak before
the Subcommittee on the
issue of comprehensive immigration reform and its importance
to our economy. I am
Thomas J. Donohue, President and Chief Executive Officer of
the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce, the world's largest business federation, representing
more than 3 million
businesses of every size, sector and region.
On September 7, 2001, I testified before the Senate Committee
on the Judiciary,
four days before the tragic events of September 11th, on many
of the same issues we will
discuss today. Of course, much has changed since that fateful
day-with a much-needed
focus on national security-but much has also remained the
same. So, I come before this
Subcommittee to once again address the business community's
continued interest in
comprehensive immigration reform. It is clear from the recent
three hearings held by this
Subcommittee that it believes immigration reform is needed
from both a national security
perspective as well as an economic perspective. The Chamber
agrees.
Stated simply, the Chamber supports immigration because immigrants
have
always been a key to the success of our economy. As stated
in the Economic Report of
the President transmitted to the Congress in February 2005,
"Immigration has touched
every facet of the U.S. economy and, as the President has
said, America is a stronger and
better Nation for it."1 Immigrants not only fill jobs, but
also create jobs here in the
United States-helping our economy expand. Immigrants are one
solution to workforce
shortages that will inevitably exist in different sectors
of our diverse economy. Our new
1 Economic Report of the President at 93, February 2005.
2
immigrants come from nations around the globe to work in the
full myriad of occupations
"from construction and cooks to computer programmers and medical
doctors."2
Within the last year, the Chamber has been involved in several
immigration
policy efforts that provide small fixes to a dysfunctional
system. These include obtaining
an additional 20,000 "H-1B" visas for foreign students with
advanced degrees granted by
U.S. universities; helping small businesses who depend on
seasonal labor by increasing
the availability of "H-2B" visas throughout the year; and
supporting the recapture of
about 141,000 additional immigrant visa numbers in the employment
based immigrant
visa category left unused from previous years due to processing
delays at the U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services. But, we believe it is
now time for Congress to
turn its attention to broader reforms of the immigration system.
Indeed, while there are
different proposals and viewpoints, no one seems to argue
that the status quo is
acceptable or rational.
Immigration Reform Principles
The Chamber represents members from all industries and employers
of workers at
all levels. We consistently hear from Chamber members across
the country that
workforce availability issues are among their top priorities.
Members in the restaurant,
hotel, health care, manufacturing, construction, and many
other predominantly service
industries, have asked the Chamber for help in finding policy
resolutions that will allow
them to hire and retain the "essential workers" that keep
our economy running.
Immigration must remain, as it has been throughout our history,
a tool to fulfill the
demands of our growing economy.
For many of these reasons, nearly six years ago, the Chamber
helped found the
Essential Worker Immigration Coalition (EWIC). EWIC is a coalition
of businesses,
trade associations, and other organizations from across the
industry spectrum concerned
with the shortage of lesser skilled ("essential worker") workers
and impediments in
current immigration law to addressing that shortage. EWIC
and the Chamber support
reform of U.S. immigration policy to facilitate a sustainable
workforce for the American
economy while ensuring our national security, built on several
basic principles. Most, if
not all, of these principles align with those of the President
and provide good building
blocks for reform. Above all, immigration reform must be comprehensive:
addressing
both future economic needs for workers and undocumented workers
already in the United
States-while concurrently improving our national security.
Our principles for
immigration reform include:
Strengthening national security by providing for the screening
of foreign
workers and creating a disincentive for illegal immigration.
The
President's principles also call for controlling our borders
and for a
program that supports ongoing efforts to enhance homeland
security.3
2 Economic Report of the President at 93, February 2005.
3 Fair and Secure Immigration Reform, The President's basic
principles, available at
http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/immigration/more-immigration.html.
3
Strengthening the rule of law by establishing clear, sensible
immigration
laws that are efficiently and vigorously enforced.
Creating an immigration system that functions efficiently
for employers,
workers, and government agencies. The President's principles
call for a
program that "is clear, streamlined, and efficient so people
can find jobs
and employers can find workers in a timely manner."4
Creating a program that allows hard working, tax paying
undocumented
workers to earn legal status. The President's principles call
for the
promotion of compassion in a program that would grant currently
working
undocumented aliens a legal status with work authorization.5
Ensuring that U.S. workers are not displaced by foreign
workers. The
President's principles call for the matching of a willing
immigrant worker
with a willing employer when no American worker is available
and
willing to take a job.6
Ensuring that all workers, including legal temporary workers,
enjoy the
same labor law protections. The President's principles strive
to guarantee
that, whatever legal status is bestowed upon these individuals,
they have
protections from abuse by employers.7
Demographics and Essential Worker Shortages
The aging domestic workforce and the dilemma this country
faces as population
growth rates decline even while job growth continues has been
much discussed by the
experts. But, a brief review of the relevant statistics and
analysis may be helpful.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates that the number
of people in the
labor force ages 25 to 34 is projected to increase by only
three million between 2002 and
2012, while those age 55 years and older will increase by
18 million.8 By 2012, those
aged 45 and older will have the fastest growth rate and will
be a little more than 50% of
the labor force.9 According to estimates released in February
2005 by the United
Nations, the fertility rate in the United States is projected
to fall below "replacement"
level by 2015 to 2020, declining to 1.91 children per woman
(lower than the 2.1 children
per woman rate needed to replace the population).10 By 2010,
77 million baby boomers
will retire and, by 2030, one in every five Americans is projected
to be a senior citizen.11
4 The President's basic principles, available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/immigration/moreimmigration.
html.
5 Id.
6 Id.
7 Id.
8 Bureau of Labor Statistics, Labor Force Projections to 2012:
the graying of the U.S. workforce, February
2004.
9 Id.
10 World Population Prospects: The 2004 Revisions at 71, February
24, 2005, available at
http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/WPP2004/2004Highlights_finalrevised.pdf.
11 JIM EDGAR, DORIS MEISSNER, ALEJANDRO SILVA, KEEPING THE
PROMISE: IMMIGRATION PROPOSALS FOR
THE HEARTLAND 12, Report of an Independent Task Force, which
brought together forty leaders from
business, academia, and civil society (The Chicago Council
on Foreign Relations)(2004).
4
At the same time, we have, fortunately, projected job growth,
including in lowerskilled
occupations. Most jobs in our economy do not require a college
degree. Close to
40% of all jobs require only short-term on-the-job training.
In fact, of the top 10 largest
job growth occupations between 2002 and 2012, all but two
require less than a bachelor's
degree.12 At the same time, six of the top 10 growth occupations
require only short-term
on-the-job training.13 Some of these top 10 occupations that
only require short-term onthe-
job training include: retail salespersons, nursing aides,
janitors and cleaners, waiters
and waitresses, and combined food preparation and serving
workers.14
A panel on the future of the health care labor force in a
graying society concluded
that "[t]his will not be a temporary shortage. . Fundamental
demographic changes are
occurring in America, and the coming labor crisis will be
with us for decades."15
Currently, the American Hospital Association reports high
vacancy rates and more
difficulty in recruiting workers for positions ranging from
housekeeping and maintenance
to nursing assistants and registered nurses.16 The impact
of such workforce shortages,
according to the Association, translates into severe emergency
room overcrowding,
emergency patients diverted to other hospitals, delayed discharge/increased
length of
stay, increased wait times for surgery, cancelled surgeries,
discontinued programs,
reduced service hours, and others.17
However, shortages of essential workers are not limited to
the largest growth
occupations. In fact, the need for essential workers cuts
across industry sectors. In
February 2004, Emily Stover DeRocco, Assistant Secretary of
Labor for Employment
and Training, in a speech to the National Roofing Contractors
Association, explained that
BLS projected an increase in jobs between 2002 and 2012 for
roofers of over 30,000,
while at the same time there would be attrition in this occupation
of about 40,000-a net
deficit of 70,000.18 The Construction Labor Research Council
issued a labor supply
outlook earlier this year where it found that the construction
industry would need 185,000
new workers annually for the next 10 years.19
The National Restaurant Association projects that the restaurant
industry will add
more than 1.8 million jobs between 2005 and 2015, an increase
of 15%.20 However, the
U.S. labor force is only projected to increase 12% during
the next 10 years, which will
make it more challenging than ever for restaurants to find
the workers they need.21 The
12
KEEPING THE PROMISE: IMMIGRATION PROPOSALS FOR THE HEARTLAND
at 81, Appendix A, Table 2.
13 ID.
14 ID.
15 American Hospital Association, Trend Watch, June 2001.
16 2004 American Hospital Association Survey of Hospital Leaders;
some occupations, such as registered
nurses, come under the H-1B visa program. While the primary
focus of this testimony is on the projected
shortages of low skilled workers, the Chamber is acutely aware
of the continued need to also increase
access to highly skilled workers under the H-1B visa program.
17 Id.
18 From information gathered and forwarded to the Chamber
by the National Roofing Contractors
Association.
19 Information from the National Roofing Contractors Association.
20 From information gathered and forwarded to the Chamber
by the National Restaurant Association.
21 Id.
5
National Restaurant Association study notes that the 16 to
24 year old labor force-the
demographic that makes up more than half of the restaurant
industry workforce-is only
projected to increase 9% during the next 10 years.22
Our own surveys, not surprisingly, reflect the problems these
employers have in
finding the workers that they need. On April 19, 2005, the
Chamber's Center for
Workforce Preparation, which I will describe later, launched
a Workforce Needs
Assessment Survey of chambers, businesses, and associations.
Of the chamber survey
participants, 36% had 1,000 or more members. On the business
side, seven out of 10 had
an operating budget of less than $10,000,000 and roughly three-fourths
had 50 employees
or less. One out of four associations had a budget of over
$2,500,000 and a wide range of
industries were represented including arts, entertainment
and recreation, professional
scientific, technical services, social assistance, and nonprofit
organizations. Difficulties
in finding both entry-level and skilled workers, and developing
solutions for this
problem, ranked extremely high in importance to those surveyed.
Views by the Experts
Respected economists and labor specialists have recognized
the importance of
immigrants to the U.S. economy. In The Jobs Revolution: Changing
How America
Works by Steve Gunderson, Robert Jones, and Kathryn Scanland,
the authors note that
the "most inescapable challenge facing the American workforce
in the coming 20 years is
that, barring substantial change, we will not have enough
people to fill it."23
Justin Heet of the Hudson Institute acknowledged in Beyond
Workforce 2020:
The Coming (and Present) International Market for Labor that
the "level of productivity
gains that would be necessary to alleviate workforce growth
declines will be too high to
be relied on as a public solution to the triangle of retirement/healthcare/workforce
considerations."24 He concluded that governments in the developed
world will need to
use immigration in order to compliment their native workforce.
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, over the last few
years, has
continually reiterated that immigrants are good for our economy
and support the
workforce. Chairman Greenspan stated before the Senate Special
Committee on Aging
in February 2003, that "Immigration, if we choose to expand
it, could prove an even more
potent antidote for slowing growth in the working-age population.
As the influx of
foreign workers in response to the tight labor markets of
the 1990s showed, immigration
does respond to labor shortages."
22 From information gathered and forwarded to the Chamber
by the National Restaurant Association.
23 STEVE GUNDERSON, ROBERT JONES, AND KATHRYN SCANLAND, THE
JOBS REVOLUTION: CHANGING
HOW AMERICA WORKS 29 (2004).
24 Justin Heet, Hudson Institute Beyond Workforce 2020: The
coming (and present) international market
for labor June 23, 2003 at 11, available at
http://www.hudson.org/files/publications/workforce_international_mkt_labor.pdf
6
Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao in her 2001 "State of the Workforce"
address
noted the phenomenon of the "Incredible Shrinking Workforce."25
She noted then that to
keep up with the slower growth of the workforce and the increasing
number of retired
Americans we needed "to introduce new populations . . . into
the workforce . . . to meet
this challenge head-on."26 According to a 2003 Employment
Policy Foundation (EPF)
study, by 2030, the demand for labor could very well outpace
supply by 35 million jobs.27
The Chicago Council on Foreign Relations issued a report in
2004 which noted
that today's economies are "highly dependent on immigration,
legal and illegal,
temporary and permanent." It explained how the different economies
rely "on the labor
of those who arrived under employment-based categories as
well as those who arrived
under family reunification or humanitarian categories." It
also restated the demographic
trends and labor market projections explained earlier that
"foreshadow increasing
economic dependency on immigrant labor."28
It should also be noted that studies have shown that the less-skilled
workers, who
compete most closely with low-skilled immigrants, experience
very little downward
pressure on their wages (generally, it is estimated that a
10% increase in the share of
foreign-born workers reduces native wages by less than 1%).29
It now seems apparent
that immigrants are complementing our U.S. workforce, not
displacing it. As a nation,
we have made it a priority for our workers to move into higher-paying,
higher-skilled
jobs. In turn, immigrant workers are filling the gap by taking
many manual labor jobs
that American workers are either unwilling or unable to take.
Of course, we recognize that the business community must also
help domestic
workers find suitable employment. Previously, I mentioned
the survey done by our
Center for Workforce Preparation, which was created as a Chamber
affiliate to address
labor shortages and to engage businesses in incorporating
effective recruitment, retention,
and training solutions. These efforts include the following:
Identifying and supporting programs that bring new sources
of labor into
the workforce-mature workers, former welfare recipients, individuals
with disabilities, youth, and others. By bringing these skilled
individuals
into the workforce, employers will have greater access to
qualified
employees.
25 Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, State of the Workforce,
August 30, 2001, available at
http://www.dol.gov/_sec/media/speeches/20010830_stateoftheworkforce.htm.
26 Id.
27 Employment Policy Foundation, Despite Labor Market Weakness,
A Labor and Skill Shortage is
Looming in the U.S., August 13, 2003. The report also projects
that per capita income with adequate
immigration would be over $63,000 in current dollars by 2033-more
than two times the current level-
while a failure to close the labor supply gap would lead to
per capita personal income of less than $50,000.
28 The quotes in this paragraph come from KEEPING THE PROMISE:
IMMIGRATION PROPOSALS FOR THE
HEARTLAND 33; a more complete citation of the report can be
found in footnote 11.
29 Economic Report of the President at 105, February 2005.
7
Replicating successful workforce and education models that
focus on
partnership development between businesses, chambers, government,
and
education institutions.
Educating businesses on innovative recruitment and retention
strategies
such as workplace flexibility as a management tool that allows
businesses
to address the labor shortage by retaining their workers.
Connecting businesses to qualified and skilled youth who
are already
trained and available to establish careers in high-demand
industries such
as construction and health care.
Informing businesses on using the Earned Income Tax Credit
as a
retention tool to support entry-level workers.
Working with five states and the District of Columbia to
develop a
national and portable credential that defines, measures, and
certifies that
entry-level job seekers have the employability skills like
problem solving
and critical thinking that employers require.
Forming solutions around issues such as workplace housing
that impact an
employer's ability to recruit and retain skilled workers.
Building the capacity of over 135 chambers to advance their
role in
building workforce and education partnerships between businesses,
community colleges, and the public workforce system.
Helping the Chamber's federation of 3,000 state, local,
and regional
chambers of commerce to effectively engage in workforce development
by providing tools and promising practices.
Connecting businesses to market-responsive community colleges
and
other educational programs available to them to create continuous
skills
training for their employees to ensure that their skills keep
pace with
changes in technology.
It is also important to restate the Chamber's commitment to
filling jobs with U.S
workers before seeking to fill these vacancies with potential
new guestworkers or
immigrants abroad. Indeed, industries and businesses that
are our members are some of
the leaders in the nation's welfare-to-work, school-to-work,
and prison-to-work efforts.
Because many of these jobs are entry-level, requiring little
or no experience, and often
few skills, they are the stepping stones for many on their
road to the American dream.
Employers are taking all the reasonable steps that they can
to fill these jobs with the
current United States workforce, but still many jobs are going
unfilled.
The Dilemma of the Unauthorized Workforce
We have an existing situation in which our nation has millions
of jobs available, a
decreasing workforce relative to the number of openings, and
an immigration system that
provides no practical legal mechanism for employers and foreign
nationals to fill those
openings. It is no wonder that we have such a large number
of undocumented workers in
this country.
Who are these individuals and how many are there?
8
There is no exact measure, but a recent study put the number
of undocumented
migrants at about 10.3 million. Of these 10.3 million, about
seven million are working-
which is about 5% of the U.S. labor force.30 In fact, while
a large proportion of
undocumented women with families are stay-at-home mothers,
92% of undocumented
adult (age 18 to 64) men actively participate in the workforce.31
These undocumented
migrants are here, working hard, and paying taxes.32
Currently, Mexicans make up by far the largest group of undocumented
migrants
at 5.9 million (57% of the total).33 About 2.5 million undocumented
migrants, or about
24% of the total, are from other Latin American countries.
Asians make up about 9% of
the undocumented migrants, and 6% are from Europe and Canada.
Of all of the foreignborn
in the United States, Mexicans represent about 32% of them.
While this is a high
figure by historical standards, it is certainly not unprecedented-both
German and Irish
immigrants in the 19th century accounted for a higher percentage
of the foreign-born.34
Some ask whether the high level of employment means that employers
are
violating the law. No, it does not. It should be emphasized
that employers are required
to, and do, verify that each employee is eligible to work
in the United States, but by law
employees get to choose which documents from the Department
of Homeland Security's
approved list (set out on the "I-9" form) to present to the
employer in support of their
claim that they are authorized to work. These documents look
valid on their face and
many times they are in fact legitimate documents belonging
to relatives and friends
authorized to work in the United States. By law, the employer
must accept these
documents. To ask for additional documentation because someone
may look or sound
foreign is potentially a violation of that person's civil
rights under both immigration and
employment laws.
Due to the prevalence of these practices in the employment
authorization
verification process, most employers do not know their employees
are undocumented.
Sometimes, employers learn of their employee's lack of authorization
to work only after
an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid.35 Most
often, employers learn of
the lack of authorization to work through a Social Security
Administration "no-match"
letter that tells the employers that their employee records
do not match the government's
records.
30 Pew Hispanic Center, Estimates of the Size and Characteristics
of the Undocumented Population, March,
2005.
31 Pew Hispanic Center, Unauthorized Migrants: Numbers & Characteristics,
May 4, 2005.
32 Eduardo Porter, Illegal Immigrants are Bolstering Social
Security with Billions, THE NEW YORK TIMES,
April 15, 2005, at A1.
33 Estimates of the Size and Characteristics of the Undocumented
Population.
34 Id.
35 A recent enforcement action where ICE arrested 60 unauthorized
workers exemplifies the troubles
employers face. In this instance, the unauthorized workers
were employed in critical infrastructure sites
around the country. According to ICE's chief, their employer,
a company that provides contract workers to
companies around the country, is not a target of the investigation
because they understand that the
unauthorized workers "presented fraudulent documents to [the
employer]." See Jerry Seper, ICE arrests 60
illegals working in sensitive areas, THE WASHINGTON TIMES,
May 21, 2005 at A4.
9
The result is that the employer must dismiss these employees,
if they have not
already left in fear of deportation. To an employer who is
facing labor shortages, this
instability in the workplace exacerbates an already critical
problem-especially when, as
we hear from our members, it is some of their best employees
that they need to dismiss.
Finally, while I will leave the national security issues to
the experts, let me state
what I think is obvious. Whatever some may otherwise think
about providing legal status
to the undocumented, surely we are better off knowing who
these people are and putting
them through a screening process and identifying those that
are criminals or terrorist
suspects. At the very least, this process will "shrink the
haystack" and allow law
enforcement officials to focus resources on true criminals
and threats to our security
rather than cooks, janitors, and caretakers. Surely the status
quo of a shadow society,
with today's appropriate focus on national security, is unacceptable.
In the same vein, we
are simply not going to round up 10 million people and deport
them. Such an action
would not be consistent with this country's principles and
it would adversely impact
many industries. The Chicago Council report summarized the
reasons why the status quo
is unacceptable; it undermines the rule of law, exposes workers
to exploitation, separates
families, and complicates the security problem.36 The report
noted:
The U.S. government lacks sufficient resources and political
support to
deport nearly 10 million people. Their deportation would wreak
economic
havoc in certain industries and communities as well as negatively
impact
many U.S. citizens (including children) through deportation
of guardians,
economic providers, or close family members. Continuing to
avoid the
issue will only exacerbate the challenges and postpone solutions.37
Problems with Existing Immigration Laws and Proposed Solutions
Members of the Subcommittee, I believe I have adequately demonstrated
the
problem. Now we must look to solutions. As stated above, we
must continue to do all
we can to ensure that we are utilizing our domestic workforce,
but because of the current
lack of available job applicants, and the future demographics,
we must look to our
immigration system to help "fill the gap." However, as you
are by now aware, our
current immigration system does not adequately allow us to
draw upon this important
pool of applicants.
We do currently have a temporary labor program, called the
"H-2B" visa
program. The H-2B visa is a temporary visa issued to individuals
who will be working in
temporary, seasonal jobs outside of agriculture. The H-2B
process is a cumbersome and
bureaucratic one that involves two separate agencies, much
paperwork, and often more
time than the job itself will last. In the past, this red
tape has meant that very few
employers bothered to use the program, although in recent
years its use has escalated due
to the tight labor market.
36 KEEPING THE PROMISE: IMMIGRATION PROPOSALS FOR THE HEARTLAND
37.
37 ID.
10
As many of you now know, the H-2B cap was hit this fiscal
year in January, after
only three months of availability. This was the second year
in a row that the cap was
reached so early in the fiscal year. The H-2B visa program
is capped at 66,000 visas per
year, and this number has not been adjusted since this visa
category was initially enacted
in 1990. Congress recently passed a provision, which was signed
into law, that exempts
H-2B workers who have participated in one of the prior three
years, but the cap was not
raised. This and other short-term fixes do not fully take
into account the realities on the
ground and the caps do not seem to have any relationship to
actual market needs.
While many employers do have seasonal needs, and the changes
to the H-2B visa
category were warranted, many more employers have year-round
and long-term needs
that are not fulfilled. Such employers seeking to hire foreign
nationals for their job
openings do not have an opportunity to, since no long-term
temporary visa exists in our
current system. There is no H-1B (the high tech visa option)
counterpart for essential
workers. If an employer has a long-term essential worker position,
there is no legal
mechanism to sponsor foreign nationals to fill that need.
If the employer needs a lower-skilled worker permanently,
he or she is, as a
practical matter, out of luck. Current annual quotas limiting
green cards to only 5,000
each year for persons coming to work in jobs that require
less than two years of education
or training translate into a five to 10 year wait-not a practical
or reasonable solution for
employers. We need comprehensive immigration reform that allows
for a match between
willing employers and willing employees that is fast and reliable
combined with visa
limitations that fluctuate in connection with the needs of
the market.
From the business perspective, we have two major problems
to deal with-filling
the unfilled jobs, both now and in the future, and keeping
our currently reliable workforce
through some type of earned adjustment for undocumented workers.
In looking forward,
we believe that any legislative outcome must address both
problems. That is why the
Chamber supports a comprehensive approach to immigration.
As President Bush has
stated, we must develop a new legal immigration framework
that will "match a willing
employee with a willing employer."
While the specifics of such a program are fair game for experts,
businesses want a
system that is simple, easy to understand, and responsive
to their needs as well as a
system that addresses the reality that some of our best workers
want to stay and continue
contributing to their employers and communities. We also realize
that protections to
prevent possible abuses and to help ensure that the interests
of American workers are
protected must be included. But the system must not become
so encumbered with
bureaucratic hurdles that it becomes, as a practical matter,
unworkable.
Some are espousing a fix of the immigration system through
open borders, others
are pushing for draconian penalties on employers that would
end up disrupting our
economy, and still others want to close our borders to most,
if not all, immigration. The
Chamber believes that the solution lies not in a piecemeal
agenda that emphasizes one
11
area over the other, but in a comprehensive approach that
addresses all of the complicated
issues and concerns facing this great nation of immigrants.
We thank the Chairman for his leadership and vision in realizing
that a
comprehensive approach is needed and for holding hearings
on this issue. We ask that
Congress take advantage of the unprecedented coalition of
business, labor, and civil
rights organizations-together with a receptive President that
has made comprehensive
immigration reform a priority of his administration-to address
this important issue headon.
It has been close to 20 years since the last comprehensive
immigration reform took
place. It is said that "if it is not broken, do not fix it,"
and I add that if it is broken, as the
consensus is with regard to our immigration laws, then we
must fix it. The time to act is
now.
I welcome any questions you may have.
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