According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. employers had 9.3 million job openings available at the end of April 2021, the highest number recorded since the government started collecting the data in 2000. The National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB), the largest advocacy organization representing the interests of small and independent businesses in the U.S., reports that “a record-high 48% of small-business owners in May” had unfilled job openings and “are struggling at record levels trying to get workers back in open positions.” The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has labeled the current situation a “workforce crisis,” and launched its America Works Initiative to “address the deepening worker shortage.”
Policymakers and advocacy groups in Washington, D.C., have been calling for short-run actions to address a range of unintended consequences from earlier responses to the COVID-19 pandemic that appear to be keeping workers sidelined as job openings rise. The proposed actions include ending enhanced unemployment benefits of $300 a week and reopening daycares and schools. In the long run, however, economists and business groups agree that worker-supply issues will continue to pose a threat to economic growth without changes to the current immigration system.
Foreign-born population
According to data from the most recent American Community Survey, an estimated 44.9 million foreign-born people live in the United States, making up nearly 14% of the population. While the foreign-born population is diverse, it can be largely divided into the following four subgroups: resident nonimmigrants, lawful permanent residents (LPRs), naturalized U.S. citizens and unauthorized and quasi-legal immigrants. Naturalized citizens represent more than half (52%) of the foreign-born population in the U.S., with the remaining 48% falling into the three other sub-groups.
Immigration reform tends to focus on the three other sub-groups. Under the resident-nonimmigrant category, particular attention is paid to the allotment of visas for temporary workers, including H-2A visas (agricultural workers), H-1B visas (specialty-occupation workers) and H-2B visas (nonagricultural workers).
Under the LPR sub-group, the reform conversation relates to the statutory caps that limit the annual number of individuals who can be granted LPR status, the per-country caps which limit LPRs from any single country to 7% of the total annual limit and those LPRs granted green cards through refugee and asylee status.
For the quasi-legal population living in the U.S., including those granted temporary protected status (TPS), humanitarian relief and DACA status, advocates would like to see a resolution to these individuals’ temporary status that is constantly at threat of being rescinded.
Finally, and perhaps the biggest topic of discussion when it comes to immigration reform, is the conversation around solutions and policies to address the unauthorized population (about 11 million) living in the U.S., such as creating pathways to citizenship.
Both Republicans and Democrats have introduced comprehensive reform plans that would address the unauthorized population in different ways and continue to work on bipartisan legislation that takes a more piecemeal approach – addressing certain populations such as undocumented farmworkers, TPS recipients and DACA recipients, and eliminating per-country caps – to fix a broken system. However, progress on the issue as a whole and in piecemeal fashion is being hampered by concerns with border security.
The current border crisis
In any normal year, consensus on a path forward for immigration reform is difficult for Democrats and Republicans. However, the current situation at the southern border has made it almost impossible to fashion a way forward this year. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the number of undocumented migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border reached its highest level in 20 years in May 2021. Traditional GOP immigration allies, many of whom have introduced bipartisan immigration bills to this Congress, have said they wouldn’t even support their own legislation until the crisis at the border is handled. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), a centrist Democrat, has urged President Biden and Vice President Harris to visit the border and “sit down” with local law enforcement to properly understand what is happening. While progress on immigration reform may be muted until the border situation improves, we take a look below at some of the proposals circulating in Congress at this time.
President Biden’s comprehensive immigration reform proposal
Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Representative Linda Sanchez (D-CA) introduced President Biden’s overhaul of the immigration system on February 18, 2021. The bill, the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, would tackle immigration reform as promised by President Biden on the campaign trail.
Under the bill, the quasi-legal population and a subsector of the unauthorized population – immigrant farmworkers – would immediately be eligible for a green card, while the remainder of undocumented individuals in the U.S. would receive lawful prospective-immigrant status with the ability to transition to a green card after five years, provided certain requirements are met. The bill also would seek to reform the legal-immigration system by clearing green-card backlogs, eliminating the per-country caps and increasing family-based, diversity-based and employment-based visa caps. On border security, the bill would focus on the use of new technology and address the root causes of migration by investing in Central American countries – efforts that Republicans have panned as insufficient for the current crisis.
Republican proposals
In response to President Biden’s proposal, two Republicans have offered competing plans. Freshman Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL) outlined her Dignity Plan on March 18, 2021. Her plan emphasizes border security, including “funding for a full-border infrastructure system and maintaining operational control of the southern border” and a “trigger mechanism to ensure border security is completed before other reforms take place.” It also would offer immediate legal status to so-called Dreamers brought into the country illegally as younger people, as well as a 10-year path to achieving a renewable legal status for employed, undocumented immigrants with a clean criminal record. Her bill also would expand visas for agricultural workers, modernize the H-2B program and institute market-based reforms, as well as implement mandatory E-Verify to certify employees are not undocumented.
Rep. Carlos Giménez (R-FL), a supporter of the Dreamer population as well as those on TPS, has not published his reform plan but has offered insight into the actions it will take in a variety of interviews with news outlets. His overhaul is far less broad than either President Biden’s overhaul or Rep. Salazar’s Dignity Plan. Simply put, his proposal would allow undocumented immigrants already working in the U.S. to pursue a pathway to citizenship by applying through their country of origin without having to return to their countries to do so. This would effectively leave the current immigration system untouched and allow undocumented individuals to begin the legal immigration process while remaining in the U.S., and would not displace those who are already in the legal immigration queue.
Piecemeal approach
In March, the House passed two bills, the American Dream and Promise Act of 2021 (H.R. 6) and the Farm Workforce Modernization Act (H.R. 1603). Both bills approached the reform agenda in a piecemeal manner after it became clear to House leaders that the comprehensive plan put forth by the Biden Administration did not have enough votes to pass on the floor, indicating that even some Democrats are not on board with the Administration’s proposal. Both bills passed the House with bipartisan votes – 228-197 for H.R. 6 and 247-174 for H.R. 1603.
If signed into law, H.R. 6 would “provide a route to citizenship for Dreamers (…) as well as individuals shielded by Temporary Protected Status,” and H.R. 1603 “would provide a pathway to citizenship for farm workers and seek to ease the process of hiring employees through the H-2A visa system.” Although the bills passed the House by a bipartisan vote, the Senate has not taken any action on either bill.
What’s next?
While the Biden Administration has been able to take steps to address certain components of the foreign population in the U.S., including designating Venezuela and Burma for TPS in March, a new TPS designation for Haiti in May and a supplemental increase of 22,000 H-2B visas to help U.S. employers fill temporary seasonal jobs, permanent relief and reform will be subject to Congressional appetite to negotiate a path forward on many of the aforementioned issues.
On June 15, after this article was compiled, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary was scheduled to hold a hearing on H.R. 6, the American Dream and Promise Act of 2021, and a hearing was expected to provide a glimpse into whether or not future negotiations would be possible.
Basil Thomson is a senior associate with Ulman Public Policy, TCIA’s Washington, D.C.-based advocacy and lobbying partner.
Want to know more? Email Aiden O’Brien, TCIA’s advocacy and standards manager, at aobrien@tcia.org to continue the conversation.
