Washington, D.C.— Today, U.S. Chamber of Commerce CEO Thomas J. Donohue issued the following statement in response to President Biden's executive order on immigration.
"We commend President Biden for taking action to ensure the reunification of separated families, address irregular migration across the Southern Border, and improve the functionality of our nation's immigration system by conducting a top-to-bottom review of barriers to our legal immigration system. Policies adopted over the past several years have undermined critical employment-based visa programs and significantly hindered many different companies' ability to expand their domestic operations and create jobs for Americans. President Biden’s order to coordinate immigration policy through the White House and his effort to ensure that legal immigration is fair and efficient are a clear indication of the priority his administration has placed on fixing our broken immigration system. We look forward to working with the Biden Administration to address these critical issues.
“Many other problems that are afflicting our nation's immigration system, such as the growing backlogs in our legal immigration system, require Congressional action. Congress must pass common-sense immigration reforms to provide businesses with the certainty they need to meet their workforce demands in a timely fashion. Enacting those reforms will require steadfast leadership, and the Chamber stands ready to work with President Biden and Congress to get much-needed reforms signed into law."
Our nation's broken immigration system inhibits the ability of companies to grow and create jobs for Americans.
- Recent data shows that U.S. employment-based green card backlogs surpassed 1.2 million people. This leaves many hard workers and their families not only waiting for decades to become lawful permanent residents but also prevents them from otherwise progressing in their careers.
- Many companies also struggle to meet their critical workforce needs due to the arbitrary annual limits and other burdensome rules associated with various nonimmigrant work visa classifications.
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