Newsletter, Fall 2022

New Jersey Business Immigration Coalition

Fall, 2022

News and Views

Pursuing Bipartisan and Evidence-Based Immigration Reform

Entrepreneurial Immigrants Crucial to the Future of New Jersey's Economy

Guest blog of James Barrood, Founder & CEO of Innovation+

It’s amazing how often immigrants are at the heart of the stories that represent America at its best: at its most hard-working, creative, entrepreneurial and hopeful. Several months after the U.S. Open tennis tournament in Queens, I still can’t get over the passion and skill of Francis Tiafoe’s performance – and how his immigrant parents made it all possible.

If you haven’t seen any of the matches that made him a household name – including his defeat of Rafael Nadal – you owe it to yourself to take a look. And if you don’t know his family’s amazing story, you really should. Escaping from war-torn Sierra Leone in the 1990s, Tiagoe's parents came separately to America...

To continue reading, please click on this link

Coalition Urges Passage of the Farm Workforce Modernization Act

Recognizing the critical need for immigrant labor to expand crop production in the U.S. and to keep food prices down, the NJ Business Immigration Coalition has urged passage of the Farm Workforce Modernization Bill. Enjoying broad bipartisan support, the bill has already passed in the House of Representatives and awaits review and approval in the Senate.

The bill streamlines the process of applying for H-2A workers and allows undocumented farmworkers, who presently constitute a majority of the nation’s 2.4 million farmworkers, to apply for legal status in the U.S, if they can satisfy certain conditions, such as working a minimal number of years in American agriculture.

To read the Coalition's statement on the bill, click on this link.

Garden State Immigration Policy Institute Discusses the Urgent Need for Temporary Foreign workers

Panel members at December 1 program fault federal programs for insufficient visa numbers and a cumbersome and time-consuming application process

David Bier, Cato Institute

Labor force shortages have adversely affected many industries in New Jersey. Many of these industries rely on temporary foreign workers to fill positions that are seasonal or short-term in nature.

The U.S. has three main programs to meet this need: H-2A for agricultural workers, H-2B for non-agricultural seasonal work, and J-1 for exchange students. The programs are premised on the lack of availability of American workers to fill these positions.

Among the industries most reliant on temporary labor are: agriculture, meatpacking, dairy farming, travel and tourism, restaurants, landscaping, and construction.

Although these programs are intended to fill an important gap in the U.S. labor market, their shortcomings were apparent during the discussion that took place at the December 1 program of the Garden State Immigration Policy Institute (The Institute is a joint initiative of the NJ Business Immigration Coalition and the NJ Business and Industry Association.).

Keynote speakers included David Bier, Associate Director of Immigration studies at the Cato Institute, and Theresa Cardinal Brown, Managing Director of Immigration Policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center. Panel members included...

To read more about the program and

to watch a video of the proceedings, click here

COMMENTARY AND NEWS YOU CAN USE

Low-Skilled Immigration Is Needed to Overcome the Worker Crunch in the Western World

Why Many Baby Boomers Struggle to Embrace Immigration

The United States is No Longer the World's Friendliest Country to Migrants

Big Tech Cites National Security in Push for Immigration Changes

New Study Concludes Temporary Work Visas Allow Firms to Expand and Hire More U.S. Workers

Biden's Plan to 'Outcompete China' Requires More Human Talent

The Immigrant Workforce Supports Millions of US Jobs

National Association of Manufacturers Renews Call for Action on Immigration

Registry Date Reform Could Impact Over 8 Million Immigrants

Immigration Could Relieve U.S. Trucker Shortage

Coalition Urges Action on DACA Legislation during Lame Duck Session of Congress

The New Jersey Business Immigration Coalition has urged members of the New Jersey congressional delegation to support a bipartisan legislative fix for DACA recipients and other Dreamers during the current lame duck session of Congress. Action on this legislation is long overdue, and has become even more urgent as court action to declare the program unconstitutional becomes more likely.

A solution to the DACA problem may be incorporated into a recent bipartisan proposal from Senators. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.). Their proposal contains the following features:

Some form of path to citizenship for 2 million dreamers.
A large boost in resources to speed up the processing of asylum seekers, including new processing centers and more asylum officers and judges.
More resources to expedite the removal of migrants who don’t qualify for asylum.
A continuation of the Title 42 Covid-health-rule restriction on migrants applying for asylum, until the new processing centers are operational, with the aim of a one-year cutoff.
More funding for border officers.

DACA has allowed hundreds of thousands of young people to get an education and to enter the workforce. Many of them now have young families of their own. A court decision invalidating the program would throw them out of work and disrupt not only their lives but also those of their growing number of dependents. Employers in New Jersey will also feel the ripple effect: they will have to absorb the cost of recruiting, hiring, and training replacement workers, who may or may not be available to fill these positions.

Research of Interest

New Study Seeks to Define "Border Security"

The U.S. currently spends more money on border security and immigration enforcement than on all other federal law enforcement efforts combined. A decade ago, researchers Edward Alden and Bryan Robert pointed out that “the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has never clearly defined what border security means in practice.” Even in 2022, this statement remains true.

A new study, however, seeks to more clearly define the meaning of this term, so as to better evaluate government efforts to manage the border. The author Danilo Zak of the National Immigration Forum seeks to create an actionable border security framework using the best available data and clearly defined metrics and benchmarks.

He proposes the use of four goals: 1) restricting the number of migrants entering without inspection, 2) limiting the flow of illegal drugs; 3) effectivelly processing arriving migrants and overseeing cross-border trade; and 4) preventing the entry of terrorists.

Although progress has been made in producing actionable data in each of these areas, the government still has a long way to go. For this reason, he proposes providing more resources to, and expanding the authority of, the DHS Office of Immigration Statistics.

For a statement on border management released

by the NJ Business immigration Coalition earlier this year, click on this link

Approximately 45% of the agricultural workforce in the U.S. is undocumented. Of these workers, 71% have lived in the U.S. for more than 10 years

Click here for more information

Immigrants comprise 31% of all health care sector workers in New Jersey

Click here for more information

A national network of chambers of commerce (called the Global Talent Chamber Network) has formed to focus attention on immigration as a competitive advantage for local economies

Click here for more information

GET INVOLVED: We want to hear from you!

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, sign up as a member of the coalition.

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

The New Jersey Business Immigration Coalition,

c/o Einstein's Alley, P.O. Box 175, Plainsboro NJ 08536,

njbic@einsteinsalley.org

Newsletter Editor: Nicholas V. Montalto

THE NEW JERSEY BUSINESS IMMIGRATION COALITION