All posts by Cheng, Cho, & Yee, Immigration Lawyers

The proposed immigration bill that is currently being backed by President Trump may result in a net loss of 4.6 million jobs across the U.S. and including Illinois, according to a recent study that was conducted by his alma mater. The researchers also found that the overall U.S. economy would shrink by 2 percent if the legislation passed and was enacted into law. The bill, called the RAISE Act, was proposed by Republican Senators Tom Cotton and David Perdue and would have legal immigration within 10 years, including business immigration. A Chicago immigration lawyer helps businesses with their immigration needs.

Impact of Fewer Foreign Workers

The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania released a report evaluating the impact of the RAISE Act. They found that the law would cause the loss of 4.2 million jobs while shrinking the U.S. economy. The researchers state that having fewer workers means that the economy simply can’t grow at the same rate. Starting in 2000, Baby Boomers have been retiring at a much quicker pace than the economy has been growing. In 2016, data shows that there were 27 million foreign workers in the U.S. The researchers state that the economy would be harmed in both the short- and long-term if the RAISE Act is passed.

What the RAISE Act Would Do

Many businesses rely on both highly-skilled and low-skilled foreign workers to fill jobs. The employment-based immigration system would undergo an overhaul and be switched to a points-based system that would be highly dependent on English-language skills and higher education. Low-skilled workers would find it nearly impossible to immigrate to the U.S. under the proposed point system. The New American Economy reports that low-skilled immigrants have started millions of small businesses and have added greatly to the economy. Farms would also take a substantial hit because they rely on low-skilled foreign workers for their agricultural labor jobs.

Likelihood of Passage

While there are proponents of the law in Congress, it is unlikely that the bill will pass in its current form. Many members of Congress have large constituencies that rely on low-wage workers such as the agricultural and construction industries. Sen. John Cornyn says that the bill is simply a start to the conversation, indicating that it would likely not remain in its current form. A Chicago immigration lawyer may answer questions about business immigration and the RAISE Act.

Some politicians allege that immigration in Illinois depresses wages, but multiple studies have found that it either has no effect or a positive impact on wages. Immigration also positively affects the economy at large because immigrants spend money, start businesses, pay taxes and hire employees, helping to spur growth. Despite this, some politicians claim that an influx of immigrant workers depresses wages for different subsets of the population, but their assertions are not borne up by research. An immigration lawyer helps businesses secure employment visas for the workers that they need so that they can fill available positions.

Effect of Immigration on Low-wage Workers

Immigration opponents and the current administration rely on a study conducted by Harvard University economist George Borjas to bolster their claims that immigration depresses wages for low-wage workers. The study looked at the influx of migrants into Miami in 1980 from Cuba, when 125,000 low-skilled immigrants flooded Miami’s labor market, raising it by 10 percent. The wages of low-skilled workers in Miami decreased from 10 to 30 percent. However, other research has belied the findings in that study, and it is an outlier. Critics of the study point out that there were multiple problems with how it was conducted and that other factors that weren’t controlled for contributed to the depressed wages.

Multiple studies have instead found that an influx of low-skilled immigrants has no effect on the wages of low-skilled U.S. workers. A literature review of 63 other studies conducted by a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley found that Borjas’s study was an outlier and that the other research has demonstrated either a slight positive impact or none at all.

Effect of Immigration on Highly-Skilled Workers

A recent study that was conducted by a professor of geography at the University of Buffalo reviewed 18 years of employment data, focusing on the diversity of workers in different fields. The researcher found that having greater diversity with people coming from many different countries and regions in addition to the U.S. increased overall wages for highly skilled workers. She found that this effect held even though foreign-born workers generally earned less than their U.S. counterparts because they tended to work in different positions than the U.S. workers did. No matter what the outcome of the immigration debate might be, an immigration lawyer may help businesses to secure the workers that they need through business immigration.

While President Trump has promised a crackdown on immigration, multiple businesses in Chicago are pushing back and asking Governor Rauner to step in to protect immigrants in Illinois. The group includes 170 influential CEOs, investors, mid-sized businesses and entrepreneurs, and they are united in fighting against some of the provisions that they believe may harm their businesses. Called the Illinois Business Immigration Coalition, the organization recently sent a letter to Gov. Rauner asking him to sign a bipartisan measure that recently passed the Illinois General Assembly. If Gov. Rauner signs the bill into law, a Chicago immigration lawyer believes that it will provide immigrants and the businesses that employ them multiple protections.

Challenging Trump’s Call Against Sanctuary Cities

The bill would prevent law enforcement agencies from stopping, questioning or arresting individuals solely on the basis of their suspected immigrant statuses. It would also prohibit local law enforcements from coordinating or cooperating with federal agents to arrest immigrants on the basis of their immigration statuses unless the federal agents have court-issued warrants for their arrests. Federal agents could still stop and arrest illegal immigrants on the basis of their statuses, but they could not ask local law enforcement officers to help them without warrants. The businesses behind the coalition include representatives from the retail, service, hospitality, agricultural and health care industries, all of which have been affected by the negative impact of the Trump administration’s hardline stance on immigration. A Chicago immigration lawyer assists business owners with obtaining visas that their workers need to work legally, but some businesses have difficult times securing the visas that they need.

Problems with the Current Immigration Approach

Many illegal immigrants have reacted with fear in the face of the crackdown on illegal immigration by the Trump administration. A large number of businesses depend on having the labor that the immigrants can offer to them. For some businesses such as farms, it is difficult to secure the visas that are required in time each year for their labor needs. The bill would help immigrants to feel reduced anxiety levels. Currently, fewer have been applying for jobs, leaving businesses without sufficient labor to complete the work that they need to complete.

A Chicago immigration lawyer understands the complex arguments about immigration and the right way to approach it. By making the business visa process easier, illegal immigration may be reduced while also allowing businesses to have the workers that they need.