U.S. Chamber Resists Immigration Commission to Control Flow of Workers

U.S. Chamber Resists Immigration Commission to Control Flow of Workers
'Not creating an avenue for legal immigration only perpetuates illegal immigration challenges,' Johnson Says

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Following today's release of immigration reform principles by the National Immigration Forum, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Vice President of Labor, Immigration, and Employee Benefits Randel K. Johnson issued the following statement:

"The free market is by far the best tool for setting immigration quotas and picking immigrants. Employers need and will continue to fight for a market-based immigration system.

"The alternative would be a repeat of the mistakes of 1986, when legalization of undocumented workers did not provide a sufficient number of visas for people to come in legally-leading to the deaths of people crossing the border illegally and 12 million illegal residents in the country.

"If lawmakers wish to create a commission to issue recommendations on the annual level of employment-based immigrants, that would be fine. However, to give a commission the authority to have such recommendations become law unless Congress could pass a bill within a certain timeframe provides the unelected and unaccountable too much power.

"To succeed, a new future flow visa program should have adequate numbers and must be sufficiently free of bureaucracy to be usable by employers and employees."

The U.S. Chamber is the world's largest business federation representing more than 3 million businesses and organizations of every size, sector, and region.

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