U.S. Chamber, Labor Leaders Renew Call for Immigration Reform

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States Chamber of Commerce today joined labor groups and immigration advocates and urged the Bush administration and Congress to push ahead on comprehensive reform, stalled since the 9/11 attacks, to expand legal avenues for temporary work and residency that will combat U.S. worker shortages and safeguard the economy.

"There are essential jobs in the United States that are going unfilled because we don't have enough workers to fill them," said U.S. Chamber President and CEO Thomas Donohue. "We need to give immigrants a legal opportunity to take on those jobs. Only comprehensive reform, not stopgap measures, will allow employers to fill these jobs."

By 2010, the U.S. economy will produce an estimated 168 million jobs, to be filled by just 158 million American workers, as the median age of an aging U.S. workforce reaches 40. The labor-shortage problem will only escalate as the baby boomers start to retire. Construction, hotels, restaurants and other sectors that rely heavily on unskilled and semi-skilled labor – or "essential workers" — will be particularly hard hit by this demographic trend.

"The current ups and downs in unemployment do not remove the long-term threat to employers from a shrinking U.S. labor pool," said Donohue. "For our economic security, our leaders must end the stalemate and expand legal immigration."

A leader of the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition, the Chamber supports broad-based systemic reforms that would expand temporary visa programs to include longer-term employment, revamp the green card program to help employers hire valuable foreign workers permanently, and create legalization avenues for those already living and working in the United States.

"The reality is, millions of undocumented workers are here who fill an economic need, and we can't afford to send them home," said Donohue. "The sooner we fold them into an expanded immigration system the better for all concerned."

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business federation, representing more than three million businesses and organizations of every size, sector and region.

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