O Canada! Immigration reform needed to attract world’s top talent

Monday, May 20th, 2013

We just thought you might like to see this photo. While Congress debates comprehensive immigration reform, other nations, like our neighbor to the north, are looking to capitalize on their streamlined immigration systems.

“This is a stark reminder of how we’re only hurting ourselves in a global competition for talent,” says Tim Wheelwright, chair of the Salt Lake Chamber Immigration Task Force and partner at Kuck Immigration. “Our competitors see this as an area where they have an advantage.”

Utah businesses–including our booming tech industry–need more high-skilled workers. The Salt Lake Chamber has called for Congress to pass the best immigration bill possible as soon as possible–and to get it done this year.

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It’s About Time for Immigration Reform

Monday, May 6th, 2013

Immigration reform is one of the compelling challenges of our time. If we rise to that challenge, we can ensure that our great country can compete and win in the global race for talent. We can secure the lives and livelihoods of all Americans. And we can reaffirm our proud and honorable legacy as an open and welcoming society.

The time to act is now. Our current system isn’t serving the interests of our economy, businesses, workers, or security. America cannot compete and win in a global economy without the world’s best talent, hardest workers, or biggest dreamers. Gaps and shortages in our workforce put American jobs at risk—because if companies can’t find all the workers they need here, they will be forced to move the work somewhere else.

Today, we have our best shot yet at fixing our system. A bipartisan group of senators has shown true leadership and courage in forging a bill that has the support and input of business, labor, faith-based organizations, civil rights and ethnic groups, and law enforcement.

These leaders have proposed tough, practical measures to secure our borders, while still allowing people and commerce to flow efficiently and lawfully in and out of our country. Their bill includes a thoughtfully designed temporary worker program to allow employers to use immigrant labor when U.S. workers are not readily available. It better ties visas to market demands. It helps ensure that we don’t educate the best foreign talent in the world and then send them home to compete against us. It makes E-Verify a national employee verification system. And it provides a path out of the shadows for the 11 million undocumented immigrants who live in the United States today, provided that they meet some strict conditions.

The Senate bill is only the beginning of what must be an open and transparent debate. We must respect all viewpoints in this important debate, even those that differ from our own. But we should have little patience for those who decide to prey on fear and misunderstanding—or those who place their own short-term political interests above the national interest.

This is a moment that cries out for principled, courageous leadership that puts it all on the line to build a brighter and more hopeful future for our children and grandchildren. We need this leadership on many serious issues—deficits, debt, entitlement reform, education, national security, and others. Let’s start with immigration reform.

Let’s show the world that America still has the ability to do great things. It’s about time.

 

This article was written by Tom Donohue, President and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, for Free Enterprise. 

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Polling shows strong support for immigration reform deal

Thursday, April 25th, 2013

The comprehensive immigration reform proposal championed by the Gang of Eight is headed for mark-up in the Senate Judiciary Committee in two weeks and new polling shows strong support, particularly among GOP voters.

This morning, the Partnership for a New American Economy joined with Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform and Ali Noorani from the National Immigration Forum to release the poll (see WSJ coverage here).  The poll, conducted by the Winston Group, polled 800 Americans with an oversample of 400 Republicans by live telephone interview on April 22 and 23, and found that:

Republicans believe that immigration is positive for America: Fewer than one out of four Republicans think immigration is a bad thing for America.

Republicans and Americans believe our immigration system is broken: 82 percent of Republicans, and 74 percent of all Americans, think our immigration system is working poorly.

Republicans and Americans want broad reforms: 72 percent of Republicans, and 68 percent of all Americans, think our immigration system needs “a lot of changes” or a “complete overhaul.”

Republicans and Americans overwhelmingly support the comprehensive immigration reform bill introduced by the U.S. Senate “Gang of 8″: 67 percent of Republicans, and 74 percent of Americans, support the Gang of 8 bill.

Republicans and Americans believe that the Gang of 8 bill will strengthen border security: 71 percent of Republicans and 61 percent of Americans believe the Gang of 8 bill will strengthen border security, while just two percent and three percent, respectively, think it will weaken border security.

“The general public is starting to understand that a broken immigration system is hurting our economy,” said Lane Beattie, president and CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber. “We have a tremendous opportunity to create a system that attracts the best and hardest working talent from around the world to fill in the gaps in the American workforce. We urge our federal delegation to work to pass the best immigration bill possible.”

Poll results can be seen here.

 

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Panel discussion on immigration reform and new bill

Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013

Just two days after the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” rolled out the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act, three supporters of comprehensive immigration reform say it lives up to the principles of The Utah Compact. Former Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, Utah Senator Luz Robles and Jason Mathis, executive director of the Downtown Alliance and one of the authors of The Utah Compact. The Chamber’s executive vice president of communication, Marty Carpenter, moderated the panel.

“There should be broad recognition that the current system we have now does not work,” said Mathis, one of the authors of The Utah Compact. ”It is the most ineffective, terrible system we could ever have. It doesn’t work for immigrants; it doesn’t work for people living here without documentation. And it certainly doesn’t work for employers. This bill is a rational, reasonable and thoughtful approach that is finally attempting to resolve this issue once and for all. This is within our grasp. We can do this.”

Shurtleff agrees that this is the best chance for comprehensive reform in quite some time.

“All roads lead to Washington in immigration reform,” he said. “It’s amazing to take an issue that is as politically charged as we’ve ever seen, like immigration reform, where people are on both sides and feel very strongly–if they can come together on this bill at this time, they can do anything.”

Immigration reform has been debated for more than a decade, and the panel believes it’s about time Congress has acted. Mathis said this issue is well-documented and has been well-understood, with people weighing in on it for many years, and the bill reflects that. “It’s a sophisticated understanding of these issues because it’s been developed for so long,” Mathis said. Now he said the question is whether we have the courage to act on it and to get it signed into law.

But it hasn’t been easy to get to this point in the immigration discussion. For example, under the George W. Bush administration, the argument about securing our borders stopped immigration reform. It’s a debate that continues today. Some want to build the equivalent of  the Great Wall of China along the southern border through the Rio Grande. Others advocate for additional border patrol. The panelests agree border security is a key component of reform, but that there are other potential solutions.

Sen. Robles talked about how even though national security and securing our borders are critical, there’s more to comprehensive immigration reform than just border security. Shurtleff pointed out that in 2000 there were 8,400 border patrol agents and by 2012, there was 26,000.

“The border is substantially more secure,” he said. “We’re making progress but it’s not perfect.”

There was emphasis that immigration reform, more than anything, is about keeping our communities safe.

“The public is not safe in so many ways,” Sen. Robles said, “You have to have a system that works to keep communities safe.”

Both Sen. Robles and Shurtleff spoke about how the immigrants that are working, honest, and want to be helpful with authorities and their communities have been “marginalized” simply because of the crime that tends to happen with only a few illegal immigrants. Many of the immigrants “want to be a part of our society and provide a better life for their family,” according to Mathis.

“Right now our biggest issue is drug trafficking, human trafficking,” said Robles. “We need to invest in making sure our neighboring countries are on the same page when it comes to that kind of criminal activity.”

As for the path to citizenship goes, if this new bill is signed into law, it would take 13 years for an illegal immigrant to get citizenship if they are working and have a clean criminal record. If they are regular immigrants, that time is cut down to a seven or eight years to citizenship.

“I’m hearing from the immigrant community that they are excited for that opportunity to work 13 years to get to citizenship,” said Sen. Robles. “It’s reasonable; it shows compromise.”

To those who rush to label the new bill with the “A” world (amnesty), Shurtleff said, “It’s not amnesty when there are all these penalties and provisions and place.” The path to citizenship involves staying free of crime, paying a $1,000 fee, seven to 13 years and all the paperwork needed.

The panelists agreed immigration reform should be tackled with a comprehensive plan (like one in the new bill) that tackles everything at once.

One of the most important things, Shurtleff said and others supported, is that everyone to stand up tell their elected officials what’s most important, to have them go over this bill and help drive it to being passed. Shurtleff said Sen. Hatch is a champion for “working across political lines” and being on the forefront of the DREAM act on the Senate floor.

Mathis noted that the Chamber president and CEO did have some “harsh words” for our senators last week. “It wasn’t so much animosity as it was a sense of frustration,” Mathis said. “We really think highly of our senators. They are capable and confident. We are often most harsh to the people we love most. And it’s okay to hold them responsible.”

Carpenter pointed out that they all seemed optimistic about this chance at immigration reform. As this bill goes through the legislative process, the panel said they can see a “light at the end of the tunnel,” and hopefully action in this heated topic.

To hear the entire panel discussion, it’s available on KUER.org.

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Former Sen. Bob Bennett weighs in on Chamber’s call for comprehensive immigration reform

Thursday, April 18th, 2013

Former U.S. Senator Bob Bennett has published a letter to the editor of the Salt Lake Tribune today, essentially saying the business community is right to call for comprehensive reform, and that our current senators are right to not circumvent the “regular order” used to enable debate and ultimately, good legislation.

We couldn’t agree more.

As we indicated on our blog post yesterday, business leaders were concerned at the language in a letter signed by a number of senators, including Sens. Hatch and Lee, that indicated the process should take years, not weeks.

Utah’s business community also agrees with former Sen. Bennett when he writes:

“I am for as good a bill as possible passed as soon as possible. If good will and good sense can prevail, both can be achieved.”

You can read the full text of Sen. Bennett’s letter here.

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Business leaders encouraged by immigration proposal, reaffirm call for comprehensive immigration reform this year

Wednesday, April 17th, 2013

The Salt Lake Chamber, Utah’s business leader, is encouraged by the bipartisan nature and comprehensive scope of the immigration reform bill introduced today. The broken U.S. immigration system is hampering the economy and Congress needs to pass immigration reform this year.

Congressional leaders unveiled the framework for a comprehensive immigration bill this morning. Utah’s business community supports the objectives of this legislation, which is to simultaneously strengthen enforcement, fuel economic development and modernize the antiquated immigration system.

Business leaders encourage members of Congress, including Utah’s federal delegation, to work toward passing comprehensive reform this year. The status quo is unacceptable. The introduction of this legislation represents the best opportunity to resolve this issue in nearly three decades.

Last week, Salt Lake Chamber President and CEO Lane Beattie joined chamber leaders from across the state to encourage members of Utah’s federal delegation to support comprehensive immigration reform efforts this year. Beattie was concerned by a letter written to Senator Patrick Leahy, the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, dated March 19, 2013, and signed by several senators including Utah’s Sens. Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee. The portion of the letter of particular concern to business leaders reads, with emphasis added:

“As you are aware, this bill potentially could be the most dramatic and consequential alteration of our immigration system in nearly 30 years, impacting nearly every aspect of our legal and economic structure and increasing entitlement spending to historic levels. Before the Immigration Reform and Control Act was first introduced in the Senate in 1982, the Committee had 100 hours of hearings with 300 witnesses before marking up a bill. Congress continued the debate for the next three years, and even then, the Judiciary Committee spent three months reviewing the bill before it was reported in August of 1985. Accordingly, we respectfully request that the public be given adequate time, consistent with past practice in handling complex compressive immigration legislation, to read and analyze the contents of any such bill before it is listed on the Committee’s Executive Business Meeting agenda. We further request that during this time, the Committee hold hearings on the overarching issues integral to legislators.”

Business agrees comprehensive immigration reform should be carefully considered, but three years is not an acceptable period of time, even if it is “consistent with past practice.” Business is supportive of deliberate and express action on comprehensive immigration reform. However, make no mistake, business is not asking our elected officials to pass an unread bill or legislate in ways inconsistent with responsible lawmaking.

In other words, we already understand immigration policy. Lawmakers, scholars, businesses and the public have been identifying, studying and discussing all issues involved in comprehensive reform for many years. Immigration policy is easily distinguished from much more complicated matters such as tax reform or health system reform.

Beattie says he, “agrees 100 percent” with the portion of the final paragraph of the letter, which reads:

“If we are serious about protecting our national interest and the best interest of American workers, we must provide all members of the Senate, and, most importantly, the public, a full and fair opportunity to become adequately informed.”

As reported by UtahPolicy, Sen. Lee responded to Utah’s chamber leaders saying, “Immigration reform will have lasting effects for generations. Asking for a few weeks to make sure senators and Utahans understand what is in the bill is certainly not asking too much.”

We concur with Sen. Lee—a few weeks or even a few months is not asking for too much. The fact that Sen. Lee is talking weeks and not years is the right approach. In fact, Chamber conversations with Sen. Lee and senior Lee staff members over the tenure of his service have consistently reflected an understanding of the economic necessity of reform.

Sen. Hatch’s office also issued a statement April 9, to indicate the senator is still committed to working toward immigration reform that addresses high-skilled and hourly labor needs. In the days since the press event, Sen. Hatch and Beattie have had productive dialog on this issue.

Of course, there is an expectation for adequate process in addressing comprehensive immigration reform, and having no process is unacceptable. This issue deserves appropriate committee action and we support our senators’ call for reasonable process. Business leaders expect lawmakers to act substantively and not be derailed by political shenanigans. A quibble over process—regardless of who is at fault—should not be used to undercut the substance of any legislation.

With the U.S. economy growing at an anemic 1.5 percent, getting immigration right is critical. “We do not, under any circumstance, need to slow down the immigration reform process in the United States,” said Beattie. “We need to act.”

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Red-State Utah Offers an Object Lesson on Immigration

Tuesday, April 16th, 2013

Immigration reform is important to the Salt Lake Chamber. We support Utah’s efforts to deal with the results of the United State’s broken immigration system. We encourage the federal government to address this issue to ensure businesses have the workers–both high-skill and hourly–to strengthen the economy.

Comprehensive and compassionate immigration reform is what we need, and The Utah Compact outlines five principles that can help guide this discussion to a sensible resolution. Thanks to The Compact, Utah is now seen as a leader in the immigration discussion. A recent article from Roll Call, a source for news on the nation’s Capitol Hill, further touts Utah has having the right idea about immigration reform and what we as a country should be doing. See below for the article. 

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This state is about as conservative as there is, yet it has some of the most sensible immigration laws in the country. Its record is a challenge to Republicans in Congress — and to the Obama administration, which isn’t letting the state go as far as it would like.

Remember all the 2008 Democratic-primary fuss about whether undocumented (or illegal) immigrants should be able to get driver’s licenses? Utah solved the problem by granting them Driver Privilege Cards, which can’t be used as identification at airports but do entitle holders to be able to buy auto insurance.

Republicans in Congress so far have blocked passage of DREAM legislation to give legal status to people brought to the United States illegally as children. And lots of them gripe that President Barack Obama has taken executive action to have immigration enforcers not chase such people unless they have committed crimes.

But Utah has done what it can for its DREAMers, allowing them to pay in-state tuition rates at public colleges. It’s one of just 12 states that do so.

Republicans should note that, among those dozen states, four others are bright red politically — Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas.

Utah also passed a law in 2011 to create its own guest worker program — allowing undocumented residents to obtain permits to get jobs in the state. According to Utah Speaker Becky Lockhart, implementation of the law awaits the Obama Justice Department’s granting a waiver of federal immigration law. Even if the administration is hoping for passage of nationwide immigration changes, it surely ought to allow Utah to give its undocumented citizens this break.

The state’s policies have been heavily influenced by the Utah Compact, a declaration of principles drawn up in 2010 by the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce and blessed by the Mormon church. It declares that “immigrants are integrated into communities across Utah.”

The compact also reads: “We must adopt a humane approach to this reality, reflecting our unique culture, history and spirit of inclusion. The way we treat immigrants will say more about us as a free society and less about our immigrant neighbors.”

It’s too bad 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney didn’t heed his church’s view instead of advocating “self-deportation” of the undocumented and opposing DREAM as a “magnet” for illegal immigration. He might have done better than 27 percent support among Latino voters.

Republicans in Congress could do worse than to follow the lead of one of their most conservative states.

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The original Roll Call article can be found here.

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Chamber continues call for comprehensive immigration reform

Monday, April 8th, 2013

 

Congress is expected to unveil a comprehensive immigration reform bill this week. Tomorrow, the Salt Lake Chamber will join with seven other chambers of commerce from across the state to encourage members of the Utah federal delegation to support efforts to modern our immigration system to attract and retain top talent from around the world and provide the immigrant workforce needed to grow our economy.

Yesterday, Tim Wheelwright, chair of the Salt Lake Chamber Immigration Task Force, made an appearance on KSL’s Sunday Edition. He agrees there is reason for optimism but emphasized that there is a lot to be done still.

“I’m impressed that we are at April 7th and they are still talking about immigration reform–that it hasn’t broken down,” said Wheelwright. “It is amazing when you consider the complexities of the issues they’ve confronted. It is still early in the process. I am cautiously optimistic that they will be able to do that.”

Immigration is an issue we can solve and we can do it in a way that strengthens the national economy. Wheelwright emphasized the business community’s desire that immigration is addressed in a way that will strengthen the economy and resolve the issue once and for all.

“The greatest benefit of The Utah Compact is it changed the tone of the debate,” said Wheelwright. “The moderate voice on immigration has come forward and made itself heard in the debate. The people who are on the opposite ends of the discussion are being drowned out by those saying there has to be a practical solution and we can find it.”

Sunday’s Salt Lake Tribune also published an op-ed piece by former Utah Sen. Jake Garn, encouraging policy makers to adopt a system to attract top talent to the U.S. He writes:

“It’s no wonder that so many of the world’s best and brightest want in. But what is a wonder is that we don’t welcome more of them. It’s like we’ve been given not just a single first-round draft pick, but virtually every pick in the entire first round — yet we make it nonsensically hard for smart, skillful, and entrepreneurial people to come here.

Faced with an immigration system that doesn’t make sense, many of them give up and stay in other places, rather than bringing their talents to America. That’s not smart for us, and it’s not good for our economy, especially at a time when we’re still looking for ways to spark growth.

Talk about immigration reform shouldn’t slip into stale stereotypes. We’re talking about fixing a system that’s keeping out aerospace engineers and surgeons, architects and accountants, computer programers and microbiologists. We need to fix a system that’s keeping us from welcoming more people who want to leave Europe because its banks are a mess, or China because they want to speak their minds, or Russia because there’s more hope here.”

You can read the full article here and check back tomorrow afternoon for more on the Chamber’s immigration news conference.

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An economy-strengthening legislative session

Tuesday, March 26th, 2013

Editor’s note: this post was originally published as an op-ed in the Salt Lake Tribune. You can read the original post here. 

In early February, a high-level executive from General Electric met with Lt. Gov. Greg Bell and complimented him on Utah’s reputation as a well-managed state. Thinking the visiting executive had been given the information by his staff and was mentioning it to be polite, the Lt. Gov. thanked him and asked who had told him of our state’s reputation for prudent management. The GE executive assured Lt. Gov. Bell Utah’s solid management is widely acknowledged in the business world.

The 104 members of the Utah Legislature concluded a successful 45-day session last week and they deserve the thanks of all Utahns for their service. Utah’s business community also applauds them for the steps they took to strengthen our state economy and Utah’s reputation for being well managed.

The Legislature invested in Utah’s future workforce. Our elected officials heard the call for greater innovation, investment and accountability in education and took action. Their decision to adopt the dual goals of the Prosperity 2020 movement to have 90 percent of Utah’s elementary school children proficient in reading and mathematics, and 66 percent of all Utah adults earn a college degree or skilled trade certificate by the year 2020 is an important step in the right direction.

Goals alone will not improve educational performance in our state. The Legislature took practical, important steps toward achieving these goals. They fully funded growth in public and higher education. They ensured all high school students will be better prepared for and take the ACT exam. And they funded a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) action center that will help implement the best practices for teaching students subjects that will drive our economy in the decades ahead.

The Legislature also strengthened Utah’s economy by making smart decisions to improve our health system. By 2020, the U.S. will need 91,500 more doctors than we are projected to have, and Utah is among the states with the lowest number of doctors per capita in the country. Our elected officials funded an additional 40 seats at the University of Utah medical school. All the additional seats are required to be filled by students with Utah ties who are more likely to practice in our state when their training is complete.

The business community also supports action taken to strengthen the commercial insurance market by making it easier for families to utilize government premium subsidies to purchase private insurance.

Moving goods and services through our state is also vital to our economy. The Legislature continued its commitment to transportation infrastructure by approving $336 million for over 20 projects.

Our ability as a state to enhance community prosperity through innovation has set us apart. Legislators adopted an innovative plan to enhance Utah’s air quality by converting buses and state fleet vehicles to clean-burning CNG and building natural gas fueling and maintenance infrastructure. A general session that took place during extended inversions and poor air quality produced a pragmatic approach to convert the worst polluting vehicles into some of the cleanest. Each bus converted to CNG is the equivalent of converting 36 cars to the cleaner-burning fuel.

Our state constitution requires a balanced budget, but just because something is required doesn’t make it any less of a challenge. Our Legislature balanced the budget without a general tax increase and added some $50 million to the rainy day fund.

Utah has been recognized nationally as the best-managed state and the Legislature strengthened that reputation during this session. The business community thanks these elected officials for their dedicated service and we will continue to work in partnership with them to strengthen the Utah economy.

 

 

Ray Pickup is the chair of the Salt Lake Chamber Board of Governors, and president and CEO of Workers Compensation Fund.

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Changes to I-9 forms impact all Utah businesses

Thursday, March 14th, 2013

There’s been a change to one of the forms we all fill out every time we start a new job and, no surprise, the change did not make the form any easier to fill out.

“We used to say the I-9 form was a the most complicated one-page form the federal government has and now it’s the most complicated two-page form,” says Tim Wheelwright, partner at Kuck Immigration Partners and the chair of the Salt Lake Chamber Immigration Task Force. He points out that the two-page form comes with several pages of instructions. “This form affects every employer in the state of Utah–and every employer in the country.”

The changes go into effect immediately, but businesses are not required to start using the new form until May 7, 2013.

Two substantive changes have been made in the basic I-9 process, including a requirement for employers to re-verify an expiration date of certain documents and print the full name of the employee in Section 2.

Wheelwright encourages business leaders to become familiar with what he calls, “indispensable resources for anyone handling I-9 forms,” the Handbook for Employers (M-274) and I-9 Central.

Even businesses that utilize E-Verify must properly complete I-9 forms. Fines for substantive errors range from $110-$1,100 per violation.

Wheelwright recommends you work with your software provider to ensure correct implementation, even if your organization uses electronic I-9 software.

“In this environment where the federal government is very actively auditing companies to make sure they are in compliance, there is an increased risk they could be audited and subjected to what are sometimes substantial fines,” says Wheelwright.

Wheelwright shared five tips for dealing with the changes to the I-9 form:

1. Read the instructions
2. Put someone in charge
3. Put procedure in writing
4. Conduct an internal audit
5. Set methods to track key dates

You can learn more about these tips in the video interview with Wheelwright above or by CLICKING HERE.

 

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