Democratic senators urge Biden to allow states to sponsor noncitizens to expand workforce

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

A group of a dozen Democratic senators are urging President Biden to allow states to sponsor noncitizens for work authorization in certain industries to expand the workforce.

The senators, led by Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), said in a letter to Biden on Friday that the United States is facing major workforce shortages in multiple industries, and economists believe that two years of lost immigration amid the COVID-19 pandemic is responsible for almost half of the workers who are missing from the labor force.

“It is no surprise that state leaders have called for immigration reform to meet their state’s workforce needs. Without such reforms, some businesses have closed their doors. Others have hired workers without authorization, leaving such workers at risk of artificially depressed wages and poor working conditions,” the letter states.

The senators said many of the migrants who have come to the U.S. across the southern border are “ready, capable, and willing” to help meet the country’s workforce needs. But they said many have struggled to find work because of the immigration system’s legal and logistical obstacles.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/democratic-senators-urge-biden-allow-170151302.html

[WarGamer]

1. Only if they can prove they've exhausted the ability to hire domestic workers

I can speak from experience that big corporations will let a 20 year worker go in favor of a young Engineer/MD/Ph.D from India or Pakistan to save 50% salary.

[pinkstarburst]

7. This right here

I have no problem if we are talking ONLY about low wage jobs that are narrowly defined such as agricultural jobs, working picking food, working on dairy forms, meat processing plants, working in nursing homes... those areas I'm sure are actually having a lot of trouble hiring because that work is very hard compared to say working in a nice air conditioned Target or a Walmart and doesn't pay as well.

They absolutely should not be allowed to hire people from other countries for good tech jobs and other fields where they should reasonably be able to hire an American, especially now when so many people are getting laid off work despite having degrees and experience, when so many American citizens are struggling to buy houses and afford rent, and where AI is going to make job loss a threat. We need to be scaling BACK on the number of visas and exemptions that are allowed for businesses to employ foreign workers in those sorts of well paid jobs, not be expanding them.

[WarGamer]

9. +1000 absolutely.

[NYC Liberal]

2. There is no labor shortage. Businesses who can't find anyone to work for them

are either not paying a wage acceptable in 2023, or are simply toxic places to work.

[Phoenix61]

3. The agriculture industry relies on migrant workers for harvesting.

Many work the season in the states then return home.

[NYC Liberal]

4. And what are migrant workers being paid?

If it's not a living wage then my point stands.

[Phoenix61]

5. Migrant means moves from place to place.

There aren’t enough local people to do the job. You want them to pay people who live in the US enough in a couple of months to support themselves for the rest of the year in their US hometowns? Really? Think groceries cost a lot now what do you think they’d cost under that plan?

[NYC Liberal]

8. No, they need to be paid a living wage for the time that they are working.

[Phoenix61]

10. How would change the nature of that industry? nt

[madville]

11. When I was a teenager

That’s what many local people did during the summers here, worked in the fields and barns, mostly watermelons and tobacco here. Lots of high school kids would be out there, even some of our school teachers, county deputies, etc because it paid more than their primary jobs.

My grandparent’s farm mainly had local Black people that lived and worked on it but they focused on fall and winter crops, potatoes and cabbage, so those workers would work on the tobacco and watermelon farms as well in the spring and summer.

There weren’t any Hispanic migrant workers here back then, it was all mostly local labor.

[roamer65]

6. +10000