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LABOR SHORTAGE — The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is calling the U.S. labor shortage a "national economic emergency," per Grace Dean of Business Insider. According to March data, there are only 1.4 available workers per job opening in the U.S. — half the average over the past 20 years, and continuing to decline. The shortage "poses an imminent threat to our fragile recovery and America's great resurgence," Chamber president and CEO Suzanne Clark said. Reforming the legal immigration system, among other government investments in employer-led job education and training programs, can "help employers meet demand for high-demand jobs in labor-strapped sectors." (Did someone say reforming legal immigration?) SPEAKING OF OPENINGS — According to a National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) analysis, job vacancies in computer occupations exceed 1 million, NFAP Executive Director Stuart Anderson writes for Forbes. Yet the number of H-1B visas is small given the U.S. population total, he notes. Unless the U.S. State Department commits to new and revised policies, "visa backlogs, including for H-1B and L-1 visa[s], will continue to mount." Britta Glennon, an assistant professor at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, adds: "[A]ny policies that are motivated by concerns about the loss of native jobs should consider that policies aimed at reducing immigration have the unintended consequence of encouraging firms to offshore jobs abroad." SOME POTENTIAL HELP — On Wednesday, Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-California) and John Curtis (R-Utah) introduced bipartisan legislation that would help businesses and their employees. The Equal Access to Green cards for Legal Employment (EAGLE) Act of 2021 would phase out the 7% per-country cap on employment-based immigrant visas and raise the per-country cap on family-sponsored visas to 15%. A similar bill, the Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act, passed with overwhelming bipartisan support last Congress, though the House and Senate ran out of time to reconcile their different versions. Read our statement on the new bill.
‘AS ADVOCATES AND MOTHERS’ — On Tuesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered that licenses be taken away from facilities housing unaccompanied migrant children, as Robert T. Garrett and Dianne Solis reported in The Dallas Morning News. Compare that message and tone with this one: Guided by their faith, many Texans are helping unaccompanied minors. "As advocates and mothers, our hearts are drawn" to stories of migrant children, write Brenda Kirk, a mobilizer with the National Immigration Forum, and Christine Sequenzia Titus, policy director at the National Association of Evangelicals, in an op-ed for the Austin American-Statesmen. "[T]he mission of the church remains clear: Speak on behalf of the oppressed, show mercy, and love your neighbor as yourself," they conclude. "Faithful steps living out God’s word help to honor the many daily sacrifices of mothers everywhere." BORDER VISIT — Elsewhere in Texas, a bipartisan group of senators visited the border on Wednesday — and said it’s time to reopen the international bridges, Allysa Cole reports for KRGV. The trade and traffic that cross those bridges are crucial to the communities on both sides of the border, as Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said at a press conference. Joining him were Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (R-Arizona) and Texas Reps. Henry Cuellar (D) and Tony Gonzalez (R). The four lawmakers are co-sponsors of the Bipartisan Border Solutions Act, introduced last month. FIELD NOTES: UTAH — For many immigrant communities, contact with law enforcement is associated with discrimination, surveillance, and risk of deportation. So for the final stop on our virtual road trip through Utah, our new Only in America episode features an in-depth conversation with Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown on how police can build a better relationship with their communities. Trust is key, Chief Brown says. He discusses how his department is building a pathway for a diverse range of young people, including DACA recipients, to get involved in a career in law enforcement. (Brown also recently penned an op-ed for the Deseret News on the need for immigration reforms.) Thanks for reading, Ali |
