The Georgia Chamber of Commerce joined more than 400 business groups and companies nationwide Tuesday in sending a letter to Congress calling for the passage of immigration overhaul legislation.
Facebook, Google and Microsoft are among the heavy hitters that signed the letter along with the Georgia Green Industry Association, the Technology Association of Georgia and the Cordele-Crisp Chamber of Commerce.
The letter doesn’t say what specific legislation they want passed. But it does say the nation’s immigration system is “outdated” and “broken,” and that overhauling it would boost the economy.
“Done right, reform will also serve to protect and complement our U.S. workforce, generating greater productivity and economic activity that will lead to new innovations, products, businesses, and jobs in communities across the U.S.,” says the letter, which is addressed to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
The U.S. Senate passed omnibus immigration legislation last month. Among other things, the Senate bill would allow businesses to hire more high-skilled foreign workers and agricultural workers. It seeks to unclog the legal immigration system. And it would set up a 13-year route to citizenship for the estimated 11 million immigrants living illegally in the U.S.
House Republican leaders have said they won’t take up the Senate legislation and will instead consider smaller and more narrowly focused bills, some dealing with immigration enforcement.
“The speaker has been clear that we need to fix our broken immigration system,” said Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner. “The House is working on step-by-step, common-sense reforms to do just that.”
Chris Clark, president of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, said his group supports high-tech companies and farmers who rely on foreign workers. The chamber, he said, is also seeking to block the creation of burdensome new hiring regulations for small businesses.
“When we have got members who do business across state lines in a global market, we can’t have this patchwork quilt of laws in every single state,” he said. “We need a federal solution to some of these bigger concerns out there.”
Critics dispute the idea that the nation has a shortage of skilled workers. They also worry the Senate legislation would displace U.S. workers.
“The sort of policies that business interests have been advocating for [are ones] that would perhaps enhance their bottom lines but not necessarily serve the best interests of the nation,” said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington-based organization that supports reducing immigration levels.
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