Phoenix — Immigration is a top election issue It’s happening across the country, but few places it’s felt more than in Arizona, the only swing state south of the border and home to a race that could decide control of the Senate.
Arizona businesses say worker shortages could hamper projects in industries such as construction, hotels and agriculture, and the economy could face a devastating blow without changes to the federal immigration system.
About 16.2% of Arizona’s workforce is made up of immigrants, according to one survey American Immigration Council 2022 Study. At the same time, the state is also facing a shortage of job opportunities. According to statistics, as of June, the state had a shortage of 197,000 jobs. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Monica Villalobos, president and CEO of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said the labor shortage is leading to greater economic impacts, such as home prices.
“We have members of the construction industry who are unable to find workers to complete projects,” she said. “When they can’t complete projects, it means there’s a lack of housing.”
Immigration has also taken center stage in the tight Senate race between Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego and Republican Rep. Kari Lake. News anchor and 2022 Republican candidate for Arizona governor. The race is to fill the seat left by independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema.
Arizona Democratic Senate candidate U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego speaks during a press conference regarding the Arizona-Mexico border at the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Department in Nogales, Arizona, March 18, 2024. Speaking at a press conference.
Rebecca Noble | Reuters
While Congress has struggled to pass immigration reform, Sinema and a bipartisan group of senators did it propose a billAmong other things, there will be Significant expansion of worker permits To immigrants. Political pressure ultimately led to the bill’s failure in a procedural vote.
Michael Infanzon, a lobbyist Canyon State Business Alliancesaid the current legal immigration system is an “absolute failure” for businesses and workers who need employees.
“Imagine if you want to go from Maryland to Virginia, it takes you three years to get the paperwork to go from Maryland to Virginia for six months,” he told CNBC. “You continue to do that. Do you want to do it, or do you go across the border and then go back?”
Gallego said he supports bipartisan legislation. He also called for more Border Patrol agents to make cross-border trade more efficient.
“I have been focused on ensuring that our ports of entry have the advanced technology and workforce to handle the cross-border trade our country relies on,” he said in a statement to CNBC.
Arizona Attorney General candidate Abe Hamad, Arizona Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters, Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Secretary of State candidate Mark Finchem on November 4, 2022 Holds a press conference while touring the Arizona-Mexico border area.
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Lake, a staunch supporter of Republican presidential candidate and former President Trump, is campaigning to achieve this goal Largest domestic deportations in U.S. historyusing the National Guard to help find illegal immigrants in the country. Lake told CNBC the shortage of workers is because schools are not preparing students to enter the job market, and the solution is to improve schools.
“It sickens me that we have millions of people crossing the border about three hours from here who have more jobs than our high school and college graduates,” she said in an interview at her office. about one third According to the American Immigration Council, foreign-born immigrants in the state do not complete high school.
John Graham, chairman and CEO of development company Sunbelt Holdings, said the U.S. does not have the labor force to fill jobs in industries such as construction and agriculture.
“The problem is these people are not taking other people’s jobs,” he said, standing near a hotel his company is building in downtown Phoenix. “These are jobs that we absolutely must have, and if there’s some kind of severe labor loss, there’s no replacement.”
Graham is a board member of the U.S. Commerce and Immigration Council, which has sent President Joe Biden a letter in april Asking him to “expand special categories of immigration authorization for individuals who can fill labor shortage positions.”
In addition to choosing its next senator, Arizona will vote on a proposal that, if passed, would allow state and local police to arrest non-citizens who cross the border illegally if they have probable cause.
Graham said the twin proposals of mass deportations and allowing local law enforcement to arrest people who are here illegally would have a chilling effect not only on immigrants who are in the country legally, but also on businesses looking to move to Arizona.
Ballot measure raises awareness of State Law 2010 This also makes illegal residence a state crime. Additionally, the law makes it illegal to knowingly hire or transport unauthorized immigrants and criminalizes failure to carry immigration documents.
The law led to racial profiling and a decline in the number of workers in the state. A study by grand canyon institute found that the 2024 ballot measure, if enacted, could cost $325 million per year.
Graham said the previous law “certainly brought business shame to our state when meetings were canceled.”
“So we’re basically an outlier with a lot of business across the country,” he said.
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