President Obama’s overhaul of the nation’s immigration policy has some fearing it will undermine the nation’s economy while others say it will provide a much needed boost to the U.S. workforce.
Supporters of the plan say the move was long overdue and that legalizing those who are here illegally will provide employers with a bigger pool of potential employees.
But opponents fear the flood of new workers who no longer have to operate under the radar will create increased competition for U.S.-born citizens who are already struggling to find work.
John Husing, chief economist for the Inland Empire Economic Partnership, is clearly in the former camp.
“Most of those people are probably already working anyway,” Husing said. “And when you talk to any demographer they will tell you that one of the biggest problems we have as a society is that our labor force is getting very old. Most of the undocumented people who are here tend to be younger and they would add to the available workforce in the age group that employers need.”
His executive order issued Friday will grant work permits to as many as 5 million undocumented immigrants and protect them from deportation.
Husing acknowledged that many undocumented immigrants — a population that in Southern California is largely Hispanic — probably won’t have the skill sets needed to secure some of the jobs.
“Generally, they will not be well educated I would assume,” he said. “But look at the Dreamers. Many of them are already on their way to college and they are undocumented.”
Obama’s executive action applies to undocumented parents of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents who have lived in the U.S. for at least five years. He also expanded a program from 2012 that had provided administrative relief to nearly 600,000 young immigrants who were brought to the country illegally when they were children.
The move would not provide them with a pathway to citizenship, however, as the actions could be reversed by a new president in two years. But Obama characterized his strategy is step in the right direction.
“For more than 200 years our tradition of welcoming immigrants from around the world had given us a tremendous advantage over other nations,” the president said Thursday in a nationally televised announcement. “It’s kept us youthful, dynamic and entrepreneurial. It has shaped our character as a people with limitless possibilities. Today our immigration system is broken and everybody knows it.”
Gary Toebben, president and CEO of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce supports the overhaul.
“I think it’s right to bring these people out of the shadows and into the workplace to pay taxes and make a contribution to society,” Toebben said. “But we would hope that Congress as a whole would take permanent action. We want to see a solution that lasts more than two years.”
A wide-ranging immigration bill passed the Senate last year, but stalled in the Republican-led House.
Not everyone is happy at the prospect of granting work permits to millions of undocumented residents.
“If you introduce 5 million individuals into the labor force — and I think that’s a really low figure — it will have a dramatic impact on those who are already seeking work,” said Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Hesperia. “It will especially have an effect on people who are working at lower income levels where any change in the labor market has the effect of lowering wages. This could depress wages. That’s a real concern.”
Donnelly, whose 33rd Assembly District includes such communities as Victorville, Apple Valley and Adelanto, said his bigger worry is the precedent Obama has set by unilaterally overhauling such a significant policy.
“You have a president who has decided that if he wants something done everyone has to comply or he’ll just do it his way,” he said. “It’s ignoring the separation of powers, which is part of the magic that has protected our rights.”
Republicans are expected to quickly mount legal and legislative challenges to Obama’s action, setting the stage for a bitter partisan fight consuming the final two years of his presidency.
Dennis DeYoung, a certified financial planner with Financial West Group in Northridge, said immigration is a thorny issue.
“I do believe there should be a path to citizenship,” he said. “But when you make so many incentives available, like free health care, free education, a driver’s license … it blurs the lines of the border and you don’t have much of a country anymore. “
DeYoung said Obama’s executive order is unfair.
“To me the problem is that he’s putting people who came here illegally at the front of the line,” he said. “That’s basically amnesty and it needs to be aired out in Congress.”
Documented and undocumented immigration is expected to account for nearly all of the growth in California’s labor force. The state is home to roughly 2.6 million undocumented immigrants which account for 23 percent of the nation’s total, according to figures from the California Chamber of Commerce.
“The vast majority of these individuals are holding jobs and doing work upon which employers and our economy depend,” the chamber said in a statement. “The uncertainty over their legal status is a drag on our economy. Reforming not only the undocumented immigration system, but expanding and streamlining the legal immigration system will stimulate economic growth by expanding the labor markets and increasing consumer spending.”
Christopher Warren, a professor of psychology at Cal State Long Beach, said the overhaul will likely have a healthy effect on workplace morale. Many undocumented immigrants who are currently working have not been treated as fairly as their co-workers, he said.
“I think whenever you have inequality in the workplace that mistreatment can spill over to other employees,” Warren said. “If someone on my campus was not being treated fairly that would make me more nervous as an employee. Your job perceptions get worse when others are being treated badly.”
Rusher Air Conditioning, a family owned business in Torrance that installs and services air conditioning equipment and also does custom metal fabrication, has a workforce that is largely Hispanic. Owner David Rusher said he would have no problem hiring some of the newly legalized immigrants — providing that they obtain the proper training.
“We’re a union company, so they would have go through a union apprenticeship, the drug testing and everything else,” he said. “But it’s commonly known that Hispanic people are hard workers.
