Pollster Celinda Lake’s survey found Americans support positive immigration solutions, especially granting work permits for long-term immigrants, Dreamers without DACA and spouses of U.S. citizens. Access the poll here.
WASHINGTON — The bipartisan American Business Immigration Coalition Action (ABIC Action) and American Families United (AFU) collaborated with pollster Celinda Lake, president of Lake Research Partners, for a recent survey about the current immigration system.
Likely 2024 voters in seven key swing states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — showed very strong support for expanding work permits for undocumented immigrants (including long-term workers, farmworkers, Dreamers without DACA and spouses of United States citizens). The proposed policy is favored by two-thirds of voters in these states before they hear any messaging and it is strongly favored by nearly half. Only one-quarter are opposed.
Humanitarian parole, a program that allows people to work legally and remain in the United States for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit, is currently at risk of being negotiated away by the Biden administration, during ongoing budget negotiations.
“America has an acute labor shortage,” stated Bob Worsley, a former Republican Arizona state senator and co-chair of the American Business Immigration Coalition, in an op-ed featured in The Arizona Republic. “It would be disastrous to cut back humanitarian parole and immigrant work permits now.”
American employers in construction and manufacturing, agriculture, health care, transportation, food service and hospitality, technology and most other industries are facing a dramatic labor shortage, reported last month by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The solution is clear — issuing more work permits to long-term immigrants would help fill this widening gap between available jobs and willing workers.
A campaign spearheaded by the American Business Immigration Coalition has argued that the White House can use the same authority to grant immediate legal employment authorization to immigrants who would provide a “significant public benefit” to the U.S. under the Immigration and Nationality Act, including recent arrivals and long-term undocumented residents.
“Polling demonstrates that it is politically beneficial for the Biden administration to not only protect humanitarian parole — but expand it. Long-term immigrants who have contributed to America for decades and paid taxes deserve legal status,” stated Rebecca Shi, executive director of ABIC Action. “It’s politically smart and the right thing to do. The solution to America’s labor shortage is clear — provide work permits to long-term immigrants, beyond recent arrivals. It would strengthen and grow our nation’s economy.”
America needs immigrants. There are 8.7 million unfilled jobs in the United States, and there are not enough native-born workers to fill them.
BACKGROUND:
Parole and State-Sponsored Work Authorization; a Legal Memo prepared by Greenberg Traurig LLP and ABIC Action. Clear public benefit – Current immigration policy and work visa programs do not address labor shortages and mostly benefit large metropolitan areas. Protracted and growing labor shortages are having a detrimental effect on consumers, the U.S. economy and America’s global competitiveness.