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New Jersey Business Immigration Coalition
Pursuing Bipartisan and Evidence-Based Immigration Policy
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The Importance of Bipartisanship in Achieving Immigration Reform
In a recent article, former Rutgers professor Daniel Tichenor reminds us that comprehensive immigration reform has always been a challenging policy objective, usually taking decades to implement and always requiring bipartisan support. It took Congress, for example, more than 30 years to finally remove the racist features of immigration policy in 1965. According to Tichenor, today’s situation is not very encouraging. Partisan and ideological differences over border and immigration policy are worse than they have ever been in American history. One reason why the NJ Business Immigration Coalition pursues bipartisanship as an objective is because we know that lasting progress will likely never occur without it. As our leaders have done in the past, we believe that they will eventually find common ground on immigration reform, even if each side has to make concessions to the other.
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U.S. Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) -
two senators who helped to put together the bipartisan border bill | |
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A Promising Bipartisan Effort in the Senate Fails
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One of the latest bipartisan efforts at immigration reform came to a sad end in February. Starting in October of last year, a bipartisan group of senators, with the blessing of both the majority leader Chuck Schumer and the Minority Leader Mitch Mc Connell, began negotiations to produce a bill that members of both parties could accept. Although the bill didn’t tackle all the issues of concern to groups on the left, e.g. creating a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients and undocumented populations; or groups on the right, e.g. limiting presidential parole authority, the bill did achieve consensus on a wide range of other issues, including reform of the asylum process, strengthening border enforcement, providing a path to citizenship for Afghan evacuees and allies, and the creation of new permanent resident visas to eliminate growing backlogs in employment and family reunion categories. The bill also gave the president the authority to shut down the southern border if the 7-day average of daily border encounters exceeded 5,000.
Although the bill was endorsed by the national union of Border Patrol agents, the bill never came to a vote in the Senate, after the House Speaker stated that it would be “dead on arrival” in his Chamber. Here are links to how several organizations responded to the bill: the American Immigration Council, the Bipartisan Policy Center, the Brookings Institution, the CATO Institute, the National Border Patrol Council, and the National Immigration Forum. In 2022, the NJ Business Immigration Coalition released a set of suggestions on border management policy, which, we believe, continue to have relevance today.
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Immigration and U.S. Competition with China
Guest blog by Feyisayo Oyolola & Jack Malde of the Bipartisan Policy Center
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A nation’s competitiveness depends in part on its commitment to research and development (R&D), which requires a highly skilled workforce. While the United States remains the prime destination for global talent, it is facing increasing threats in maintaining its competitive leadership amidst fierce competition from China...China’s rising status in science and technology can be linked in large part to its immigration policy. In the last two decades, the Chinese government has launched generous recruitment policies and programs on both national and sub-national levels to attract talent...
To read the full blog, click here
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The Need for Immigrants in the Healthcare Sector
As the U.S.-born working age population remains stagnant, the need for immigrants to fill current and projected workforce shortages continues to grow. One sector in short supply is healthcare. Already immigrants make up 32% of all healthcare positions in New Jersey. A new report finds that 28% of all healthcare positions in the State of New York are filled by immigrants. These percentages are even higher for doctors and surgeons (37% in New Jersey and 38% in New York), and reach majority status for home health aides (54% in New Jersey and 74% in New York). As the U.S. population ages (The over-65 population is expected to grow from 13% in 2012 to 20% in 2030), the number of available jobs for home health and personal care aides will continue to soar. Given these demographic realities, immigrants will play a vital role in meeting these workforce needs. A recent report from the National Immigration Forum details various legislative and training initiatives to ensure an adequate supply of immigrant workers in the home health aide workforce.
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JOIN OUR GROWING COALITION!
Check out our NJ Business Immigration Coalition policy platform here and if your company or organization (or you as an individual) agrees with our principles for immigration reform, we encourage you to sign up as a member of the Coalition. There is no fee to become a member.
Share your thoughts on the immigration reform challenges facing the United States. How is your industry affected? What specific reform proposals are you championing? Write us at: info@njbusinessimmigration.org
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The New Jersey Business Immigration Coalition,
c/o Einstein's Alley, P.O. Box 175, Plainsboro NJ 08536,
info@njbusinessimmigration.org
Newsletter Editor: Nicholas V. Montalto
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THE NEW JERSEY BUSINESS IMMIGRATION COALITION | |
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