Recent House Immigration Reform Principles Encouraging, but There̢??‰?s Still More Work to Do

We're encouraged to see the House of Representatives moving forward with immigration reform through their recently released principles. The principles start moving the dial toward fixing our immigration system, but reform needs to go even further. Small employers have voiced their strong support for comprehensive immigration reform because they believe it will be good for our country and for their businesses, while providing major economic benefits.

Our scientific opinion polling found entrepreneurs believe our immigration system is broken and see reform as a crucial part of small business and overall economic success. What̢??‰?s more, they support many of the elements of the Senate-passed bill, such as allowing for visas for high- and low-skilled workers, and believe creating a path to earned citizenship is the most appropriate solution for handling our country̢??‰?s 11 million undocumented immigrants. Everyone benefits when we encourage hard-working immigrants to bring their skillsets to the U.S. and let previously undocumented immigrants legally join our workforce, pay taxes and contribute in a meaningful way to our economy.

While the House̢??‰?s immigration principles include a requirement that all employers use the E-Verify system, we know from our opinion polling that nearly seven in 10 employers support exempting very small businesses with fewer than five employees from E-Verify requirements. For very small companies, which often have no HR departments, the regulatory paperwork of this program could be too much of a burden.

Small business owners understand that fixing our country̢??‰?s immigration system will help them foster better workforces and encourage immigrant entrepreneurship, which will bolster their bottom lines and our economy. It̢??‰?s encouraging to see movement on this front, but we hope lawmakers will come together soon to pass a comprehensive bill that will allow for a pathway to citizenship and will not enforce burdensome requirements on small businesses. This is the best thing for our country, our economy and our small business community.