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Revise current immigration laws and policies to address the country's need for secure borders and a secure labor force to continue economic growth. Adopt comprehensive legislation that 1) addresses and improves border security, 2) increase the number of professional temporary and permanent employment-based visas to assure that this country remains on the forefront of global competitiveness.
A. Increase funding for DHS agencies and identify and implement new technologies to assure proper identification of individuals entering the US at the Port of Entry. Through the use of biometrics, individuals who arrive in the U.S. are now being processed through US - Visit. This technology must be implemented at all air, sea and land ports of entry.
B. Increase the annual number of legal (permanent and temporary) visas authorized and issued to better serve the needs of the changing American workforce and economy. All temporary and permanent work-related visa caps, including H1B (temporary professional workers), H2A (temporary seasonal workers for Agriculture), H2B (temporary non-agricultural workers), and permanent employment-based immigrant visas should be increased.
C. Hire more retired DHS (formerly INS) employees temporarily to help process the paperwork for the current backlog. This will help expedite the approval or denial of visa requests and will eliminate the potential risk of many immigrants to becoming illegal.
D. Create a program to enable illegal immigrant workers who have contributed to the American economy through employment to earn a pathway to lawful status; Create a new Guest Worker Temporary Visa Program. America's demographics and the retirement of the baby boom predict job shortages in many workforce classifications. The Charlotte unemployment rate is around 4.2 percent and the Agriculture and Health-Care professions are already seeing labor shortages.
Rationale: The United States admits only 140,000 employment-based immigrants per year. This number includes the spouse and children of principal immigrant workers. Therefore, the number of immigrants added to the workforce through an employer-initiated process is closer to 100,000 per year. Based on this extremely small number of immigrants, there is a lengthy work-related "visa backlog." An employer can start an immigration process now for a professional or skilled worker, establish that there are no qualified U.S. workers who are available to fill the position, and in approximately 6 years, the foreign national can obtain an immigrant visa to accept the position. This processing lag time hampers America's competitiveness.
An expansion of the number of annual visas is needed to respond to America's market needs. An expansion of the number of visas available for issuance each year, combined with effective border enforcement via technology advances, should result in more orderly immigration, and reduce employment opportunities for illegal immigrants.
The American demographic that the Baby Boom generation, and its 77 million members, will begin to retire over the next four year raises concern that the U.S. will not have a sufficient work force. U.S. immigration laws should acknowledge that there are 11 million people in this country who could be productive members of the workforce, if presented with an opportunity for legal status. The U.S. should create a multi-step process that will encourage workers to earn lawful status. The requirements to obtain legal status must include literacy, English proficiency, payment of all appropriate taxes (including payment of back-taxes, if applicable), evidence of good moral character, payment of a fine for the civil violation of immigration law, no criminal offenses for "deportable" crimes. A process of this nature would help ensure there is an available workforce in the U.S. to provide continued economic vitality for the nation.
Recommendation Alternative (Section D only) - The Study Commission did not achieve consensus on this recommendation as it relates to "comprehensive" legislation that creates lawful status for illegal immigrants or establishes a guest worker program (section D). The alternative rationale is based on the simple fact that people who broke U.S. laws and are in the country illegally should not have any rights or access to citizenship. People who came to the U.S. illegally should follow the existing process for legal entry, which begins at the country of nationality or through a U.S. Embassy.
Employee Verification
Support development of an accurate employment eligibility verification program that encourages businesses to participate.
Rationale: The federal government has increased enforcement actions against employers who employ illegal immigrants. Businesses want to support and comply with immigration law, but need more help from the federal government with a voluntary employee verification process. Usually employers gather the necessary documentation to hire employees, but oftentimes they are given fraudulent documents and have limited ways to establish the validity of social security numbers or other employment documents. There is much support for the Citizenship and Immigration Service's (CIS) PILOT program and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) IMAGE program which both seek to verify the citizenship and employment records of employees. However, there is concern for the reliability and accuracy of the database on which the programs rely.
Note: In North Carolina, state law mandates that all state agencies, including public colleges and universities, utilize the PILOT program to verify employment eligibility starting in January 2007. State universities have serious concerns about the impact of database errors and the ability of local social security offices to resolve those discrepancies in a timely manner, since much university hiring takes place over short periods of time immediately prior to the start of a semester. Many of those whose names must be submitted to the PILOT program are international students who are already covered and tracked by the SEVIS system. The Study Commission considered a recommendation asking the state legislature to rescind the policy for state agencies to use the PILOT program effective January 2007, without more testing or until some issues could be resolved, but the issue did not rise to a full policy recommendation of the Commission.
Recognize that English is the primary language of business and the workplace and promote the need for workplace safety manuals to be available in multiple languages.
Rationale: Mecklenburg County is home to individuals who speak 94 languages. Diversity in the workforce and the community should be promoted, yet there should be a community expectation that all immigrants in the community are able to communicate in the English language. The use of common language helps to facilitate safety and the ability to interact throughout the community. However, a transitioning period to English proficiency requires use of communication tools in an immigrant's own language.
