The humanitarian crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border has amplified calls from both sides of the aisle to address the critical need for immigration reform. While lawmakers recently approved $4.6 billion in aid for migrants, Congress and the White House remain entrenched in their partisan positions on the larger issues affecting the U.S. immigration system, preventing the much-needed compromise that has eluded Congress for decades.
President Trump’s son-in-law, senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, has rolled out a plan to shift U.S. immigration policy toward a merit-based system that would likely decrease legal immigration options while strengthening border security and closing loopholes to curb abuse of the asylum system.
The president also continues to advocate for billions of federal dollars to fund the border wall and has increased Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s authority. His zero-tolerance policy for illegal border crossings forces the criminal prosecution and detention of all adults apprehended crossing the border illegally without exception.
Congressional Democrats have taken a different approach, recently voting in the U.S. House to provide Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) immigrants with legal residency and a pathway to citizenship. Many of the Democratic presidential candidates also have expressed support for a pathway to citizenship for all undocumented immigrants currently in the United States, higher refugee quotas, abolishing or modifying ICE, health care coverage for undocumented immigrants and the decriminalization of illegal border crossings outside of ports of entry.
Immigration clearly remains a contentious issue for Americans, with Republicans and Democrats divided on how to effectively enforce U.S. laws and deter illegal immigration.
Many in the construction industry support a strong border and effective immigration laws, while encouraging legal employment opportunities and implementing realistic solutions for the current 10 to 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.
The construction industry faces a shortage of 440,000 workers in 2019 alone, while approximately 100,000 DACA and TPS recipients are authorized to work in construction. It is critical that any immigration reform provides protections and certainty for the future of these workers. ABC has also supported a mandated E-Verify system to ensure that those working in construction are legally authorized to do so.
A bipartisan proposal in Congress supported by Pennsylvania Reps. Lloyd Smucker (R) and Susan Wild (D) would provide construction and other non-agriculture industries with access to 85,000 temporary foreign workers in areas of the country with low unemployment. Recent record economic growth has greatly benefited the construction industry, and access to more temporary foreign workers through new visa programs can help contractors hire the construction workers they are ready to hire, increase productivity and alleviate high project backlogs.
Finding Middle Ground
Legal immigration has historically provided construction with much-needed workers. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, foreign-born workers are more likely to work in the construction industry than their native-born counterparts, and nearly a quarter of the construction industry in 2018 was made up of foreign-born workers. The United States has also seen a decline in the native-born birth rate, an aging population and a decline in workers who contribute to the hard-earned benefits of Social Security and Medicare for senior citizens. Increasing legal immigration and shoring up the workforce can help address these issues and contribute to the longevity of these critical government programs.
With more than 100,000 immigrants attempting to cross the border every month, the cost of maintaining human safety and border security is becoming unsustainable. A divided Congress means that construction industry leaders must encourage lawmakers to find the middle ground necessary to enact much-needed reforms.
While there is not a lack of ideas on how to fix the system, there is a lack of will to do the work required to find a compromise. Immigration reform will likely go largely unaddressed this year and remain a top issue in the 2020 elections while the arguments over partisan proposals get louder and employers continue to struggle under the current system.
