American Business Immigration Coalition Applauds Senate Passage of Budget Resolution That Builds Momentum for Crucial Immigration Solutions
Immigration Reform Which Creates Jobs, Boosts the Economy, Eases the Labor Shortage, and Supports Families Belongs In Budget Legislation Promoting Human Infrastructure
Washington, D.C. — The bipartisan American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC) applauds Senate passage of the congressional budget resolution which sets the stage for passing critical national priorities including pathways to citizenship for Dreamers, TPS recipients, farmworkers, and essential workers.
By a vote of 50 to 49, the Senate sent the budget resolution to the House, which will shorten its August recess to vote on the budget package. Then in September, both chambers will cross one last hurdle, holding votes on a budget reconciliation bill that contains the immigration measures. The provisions are urgently needed to address the labor shortage which has increased to a high of 10.1 million unfilled jobs, grow the National GDP, and raise the wage floor for all American workers.
The Senate vote along party lines defied the bipartisan support for the immigration package outside of Capitol Hill and across the nation. Voters from both parties and all regions of the country strongly favor, by 72%, common sense immigration solutions, including the pathways to citizenship for immigrants who have become Americans in every way but status.
Also, in a demonstration of bipartisan support for the immigration provisions, prominent Republican business and political leaders sent a letter this week to President Biden and congressional leaders, calling for swift passage of pathways to citizenship in the reconciliation bill which requires only a simple majority vote for passage in the Senate. In the absence of a bipartisan immigration bill, business, faith, civic and immigrants’ rights groups joined forces to be included in the budget process to ensure swift passage.
“Immigration reform that will provide pathways to citizenship for Dreamers, TPS recipients, farmworkers, and essential workers is bipartisan and will create jobs, boost the economy, ease the labor shortage, and support families,” said ABIC’s Executive Director Rebecca Shi. “We applaud the Senate for passing the budget resolution, and we expect Congress will do what’s right for our nation and pass next month’s budget reconciliation bill with the citizenship provisions. More importantly, we are grateful to President Biden, Majority Leader Schumer, Speaker Pelosi, and other leaders for prioritizing immigration reform in the budget reconciliation process.
“There’s no immigration organization in the country that values its bipartisan membership and its efforts to pass reform on a bipartisan basis more than ours, but Dreamers, TPS recipients, farmworkers, and essential workers have waited too long for common sense immigration fixes. For the good of our economy, families, and communities, we simply have to get this done, and reconciliation is our best and most immediate shot to do so,” Shi continued. “ABIC, our leaders, allies and champions will now spend the rest of the summer making the economic case for immigration reform in press events, town halls, virtual events, and Op-eds, and with every tactic and argument we can muster. Put simply, the time for immigration reform is now.”
ABOUT
The American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC) promotes common sense immigration reform that advances economic competitiveness, provides companies with both the high-skilled and low-skilled talent they need, and allows the integration of immigrants into our economy as consumers, workers, entrepreneurs, and citizens. ABIC is active in key states and communities across the country engaging activists, advocates, business leaders and elected officials on the urgency of passing immigration reform that boosts our economy, creates jobs, eases the labor shortage and supports families.
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