Jeremy Robbins, representative for Partnership for a New American Economy and Special Counsel for New York Mayor, Michael Bloomberg addressing a crowd of local entrepreneurs and dignitaries during a meeting in The Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce. (Luis Hernandez/Borderzine.com)
EL PASO – The ongoing immigration reform debate – either in favor of or against any drastic legislative change, – usually focuses on the influx of undocumented immigrants, while ignoring its effect on the U.S. economy.
The way current immigration laws are written and executed is making it harder for companies to compete, according to a new report published by the Partnership for a New American Economy (PNAE), an organization created to highlight the contributions made by foreign entrepreneurship in Fortune 500 companies, 40 percent of which were founded by immigrants or children of immigrants.
“We are having the wrong immigration debate,” said Jeremy Robbins, of the PNAE and special counsel to New York mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The benefits the immigrant labor force provide the U.S. is substantial, said Roberto Rodríguez Hernández, Mexican consul general in El Paso. “Ninety-nine percent of immigrants are people who are not criminals, who don’t wish to cause any problems and don’t come to this country to steal from healthcare services or collapse the social security program. Simply put, their participation is very important because they contribute to the economic development of the United States,” said Rodríguez.
The notion that immigrants are more likely to start their own business and subsequently generate more jobs in the U.S. is what the PNAE report is trying to portray.
But in at atmosphere of economic uncertainty and high unemployment the question many Americans would argue is that why should more immigrants be allowed into the country and possibly take jobs away from them?
A counter argument to that impression would be that the country is currently facing a large over- and under-educated workforce.
Overeducated in the sense that very few Americans are whiling to work labor-intensive jobs, which traditionally have been filled by minorities. And undereducated because there are not enough Americans skilled in the fields of science, technology and engineering, fields that create jobs three times faster than other aspects of the economy.
Robbins argues that instead of outsourcing those jobs, which generate revenue outside the country, they should be filled locally in the U.S. by the thousands and thousands of people from around the world who are qualified and whiling to relocate.
“The 21st century global economy is not going to be about competition of resources or access to capital, it is going to be about access to talent,” he added.
A solution that is being considered by many proponents of immigration reform would be the creation of entrepreneurial visas, permits that would allow foreign entrepreneurs to create startup business and generate jobs.
“There is a clear need for well-defined rules and regulations for foreign entrepreneurs,” said José Luis Mauricio, president of the group La Red México, which is a local organization that assists its new immigrant middle-class membership with business and legal advice.
“Any investor that wishes to come to the United States from México needs to know what are the specific requirements to start a business. If the rules are clear and applied equally to everyone, people will be more inclined to invest,” he added.
The extension of green cards for graduates with advance degrees and additional temporary visas for high and low skilled work fields are options that would considerably stimulate the U.S. economy, according to the report.
“A solution that is being considered by many proponents of immigration reform would be the creation of entrepreneurial visas, permits that would allow foreign entrepreneurs to create startup business and generate jobs.”
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Why don’t you people know what you are talking about? An entrepreneur visa already exists. It is called the E2 – the E stands for, wait for it – ENTREPRENEUR!
I and the thousands of other E2 investors currently in the US collectively employ around three quarters of a million Americans. We come here legally, invest our money in small businesses, create jobs for Americans and contribute to the economy, yet we have no path to permanent residence!
Offer green cards to people like us and stand back and watch the stampede of foreign investors. If you don’t, they will go to other countries where their contributions are reconized, appreciated and rewarded with citizenship.
These immigration issues calls for a Congressional corrections, after the ‘2006 Secure Fence act’ is resurrected and built as planned. This was a double-layer fence parallel to each other, as signed into law by former president Bush. Currently waiting in the wings is Lamar Smith’s ‘Legal Workforce Act’ that disinclined GOP leaders who are wavering in bringing (H.R. 2885 bill) to the floor of the House. It’s blatantly obvious the usual suspects have been whining at these lawmakers door, from the Special Interest lobbyists. Mandating E-Verify could easily be the epitome of returning America to the “Rule of Law” for all law-abiding Americans. It could be foreseen as a series of steps, to curtail the foothold baby- citizenship financial dilemma, probably one of the highest costs to taxpayers. Illegal aliens unable to procure work, will pack up their possessions and leave.
In a study by the (FAIR) Federation of American Immigration Reform, they have estimated that somewhere between 20 million and upwards of illegal immigrants have unlawful roots here, not the numbers offered by previous or today’s administrations. The investment firm analysts for Bear-Stearns claimed that the US illegal immigrant population, also agreed with this number of 20 million people.” This was prior to the demise of the company in 2008.
Much of these illegal entries has attributed to the 49 Percent of poverty in the United States. Since 1963 the U.S. has spent over $11 trillion on anti-poverty programs, given out money, food, Section 8 housing, medical care, and assistance to the poor and near underprivileged. Since the immigration reforms of the 1960s, the U.S. has imported unsustainable poverty through immigration measures that were permitted and encouraged entry and the residence of millions of low-skill immigrants into the nation. Low-skill migrants and immigrants are liable to be poor, having babies who, in turn, are adding to America’s propagating poverty problem, driving up governmental benefits, public service, and education costs. We are now topping $113 billion dollars annually, as according to the Heritage Foundation.
Under the Liberals, Democrats and GOP elitists nothing will ever be done, against the increasing numbers of foreign nationals coming here. The subsidizing costs are reaching astronomical unprecedented dollars, especially if President Obama passes Amnesty; if the voters offer him a second four year term a reform package would devastate any chance of climbing out this deepening recession. A 2.6 Trillion price tag as analyzed by the Heritage Foundation.
Get in touch with Members of the Ways & Means Committee to phone or fax for free at NumbersUSA. You can also contact all these lawmakers through their Internet websites. But you insist on the Legal Workforce Act today and start putting Americans back to a job, taken by foreign nationals.
Bombard Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) ((202-225-0600); House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) (202-225-2815); House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) (202) 225-2915); House Chairman of Ways & Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) (202-225-3561).
NEBRASKA, Rep. Berg, Rick (GOP) (202-225-2611) ; NEBRASKA, Rep. Smith, Adrian (GOP) (202-225-6435); LOUISIANA, Rep. Boustany, Charles (GOP) (202-225-2031); (202-225-2031); KENTUCKY, Rep. Davis, Geoff (GOP) (202-225-3465); PENNSYLVANIA, Rep. Gerlach, Jim (GOP)(202-225-4315); KANSAS, Rep. Jenkins, Lynn (GOP)(202-225-6601); MINNESOTA, Rep. Paulsen, Erik (GOP)(202-225-2871); WASHINGTON, Rep. Reichert, Dave (GOP) (202-225-7761); WISCONSIN, Rep. Ryan, Paul (GOP) (202-225-3031) Tell these unwilling lawmakers that you are a voter and that they will be hearing from you in 2012.
If you want to free fax, go to NumbersUSA or please call Washington at 202-224-3121 and ask for your U.S. Senator or Representative’s office to urge action on mandatory E-Verify.
First on the lists, a Bracero type program, to allow workers to be admitted for farm employment and agriculture legally, who can then—BE TRACKED–if they abscond from the jobs allocated to them? Between 1942 and 1964, some 4.6 million Mexicans were admitted to do farm work and despite protests from US farm labor advocacy groups there was no lack of labor, only a shortage of respectable living wages and decent working conditions. By paying a fair wage, but their conditions must include health care, schooling for their kids—not placed as a financial burden on taxpayers as it mostly is today. The Bracero project should be resurrected as with the 2006 Secure Fence Act with two fences–instead of the half–completed one fence we have now and decked with nasty concertina razor wire.
Give a priority to highly skilled workers, with proven credentials of exceptional experiences and offer preferences to entrepreneurs, and wealthy businessman and women who can contribute to American society. Stop the travesty of the million legal immigrants a year, who are being covertly brought here by corporate owners through Department of Labor immigration loopholes. Through financial necessity we must reduce and stop illegal immigration at the porous borders, using one way flight tickets and using every tool available to seek out those already here. IF SOVEREIGNTY MINDED, PATRIOTIC AMERICANS WANT THERE COUNTRY BACK, AND THEN JOIN THE TENS OF MILLIONS OF MEMBERS OF THE TEA PARTY BRANCHES THROUGHOUT OUR NATION. THE TEA PARTY IS AN OPEN, FORUM FOR EVERY CITIZEN AND LEGAL RESIDENT, NO MATTER A PERSON RACE OR SPIRITUAL STANDING.
Certainly in 2012 we must safe-guard our elections, as illegal aliens do vote and as its been predominately shown before.