Community and business leaders call on the Biden Administration to enact common sense solutions to alleviate tightening labor market
Watch Video of the Event: HERE
DENVER — Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and Attorney General Phil Weiser joined Voces Unidas Action Fund, ABIC Action and a cohort of Colorado community and business leaders on Wednesday in support of the “Here to Work” campaign urging President Biden to enact an administrative expansion of work permits for long-term immigrant contributors.
Colorado is one of the many states facing unprecedented labor shortages and immigration challenges posed by a tightening labor market, a congressional impasse and delayed solutions for long-term immigrant contributors who have been in the United States for many years without a truly viable path to fully contribute and fill essential job openings. The “Here to Work” campaign — supported by bipartisan employers and immigrant communities — offers a common-sense solution to boost the labor market, the economy and provide near immediate relief to millions of active contributors to our communities and everyday life in the United States.
“Immigrants are a big part of Colorado’s communities, our strong economy, entrepreneurs and small business owners. I have called on Congress to secure the border and pass real immigration reform and the Biden administration to take action now on expanded work permits to ensure that states like Colorado are able to fill in-demand jobs. Access to work permits ensures that immigrants who contribute to the lifeblood of our communities have the ability to thrive in our state like everyone else,” said Gov. Polis.
“Just a year ago, the Department of Homeland Security granted the type of authorization we are talking about today. Unfortunately it’s set to expire, and there are too many immigrants who are here — who are desperate to work — who are worried that they won’t have that opportunity,” said Attorney General Weiser, who joined campaign supporters Wednesday morning at a rally at the State Capitol. “I’m honored to stand by you as we protect people at a time when we have a broken immigration system and a federal legislative branch that has failed to fix it.”
The Here to Work campaign is a joint effort by more than 350 businesses, 127 immigrant rights organizations, Republican and Democratic Governors, and Members of Congress, to ask President Biden to use his existing legal authority under the “Significant Public Benefit” provisions of the Department of Homeland Security to expand work permits to long-term immigrant contributors, including spouses of U.S. citizens, Dreamers without DACA, farm workers and long-term immigrants who have been long-time contributors to the U.S. economy, as well as new arrivals, in response to a pressing economic emergency – the labor shortage. A legal memo outlining the president’s authority can be found HERE.
This national, bipartisan coalition is urging President Biden to expand work permits, including parole-in-place for the long-term undocumented, humanitarian parole for the spouses of U.S. citizens, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) redesignation, and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED). Advocates are convening a large mobilization on November 14 in Washington, D.C.: The “Here to Work” Day of Action.
“President Biden has all the administrative tools he needs to catapult our nation out of its existing labor crisis while simultaneously providing immediate relief to long-term immigrant contributors and mixed-status families who are at risk of separation,” said Alex Sánchez, President and CEO, Voces Unidas Action Fund. “Colorado Latinos will reward leaders who take action on an issue so important and so personal to so many of us. The President should act as soon as possible.”
“Millions of long-term immigrant contributors and businesses in Colorado and across the country would receive a breath of fresh air if President Biden took immediate administrative action and issued them work permits,” said Enrique Sanchez, Intermountain State Director, ABIC Action. “There are millions of essential, unfilled job openings and millions of undocumented immigrants ready to work.”
Diego Montemayor, Founder and CEO of Chamba Inc., an on-demand platform that connects the Latino workforce with employers, said long-term immigrant contributors “have played an integral role in building and sustaining our economies for decades. And our nation needs them, they need people who are willing to wake up early in the morning, strap their boots up and provide indispensable services needed to keep our communities going.”
Added Rep. Elizabeth Velasco, the first Mexican-born legislator in Colorado and the first Latina to represent a district on the Western Slope: “I had to go through the immigration process for over 20 years, and I know it’s not an easy process. And I am here today as a new American to advocate for a path forward and work permits for all the immigrants that live here with us in the state and across the nation.”
House Majority Leader Monica Duran could not attend Wednesday’s campaign kick-off, but released the following statement: “Work authorization would ease a heavy burden and allow long-term immigrants to live more comfortable, meaningful lives in Colorado. And that’s what they deserve. They’ve paid their dues through taxes, playing by the rules and being valuable contributors to our economies. It’s time to acknowledge the sweat they’ve poured into this country by expanding work permits to them.”
BACKGROUND
Polling for the 2023 Colorado Latino Policy Agenda showed that an overwhelming majority of Latino and Latina voters in Colorado (80%) want the Biden administration to offer better support and policy solutions to our long-term immigrant contributors.
Taking bold, humane, common-sense executive action on behalf of long-term immigrant contributors is justified on its merits, and it is politically popular. As laid out in a memo by American Families United, Immigration Voters – U.S. citizen adults living with undocumented immigrants – are a force in swing states, making common-sense, humane action on immigration a political win for President Biden.
President Biden has the ability to expand work authorization with the stroke of a pen. Last month, President Biden announced that work permits would be given to 500,000 Venezuelan immigrants living in the United States.
- The Biden administration has granted a historic number of parole work permits to 567,000 Afghanis, Ukrainians, Venezuelans, and Cubans.
- USCIS already provides parole for the undocumented husbands, wives, and parents of U.S. military service members.
Recently, Congressional leaders called on the President to take the next step and do right by all mixed-status families, and immigrants from all over the world. A bipartisan set of governors including Republican Governors Spencer Cox of Utah and Eric Holcomb of Indiana, and Democrats JB Pritzker of Illinois and Kathy Hochul of New York, have also taken up the cause: urging the President to expand workforce authorization to long-term immigrant contributors as well as new arrivals.