The reason we see growing demand for these very different groups of occupations—some of them fundamental and some of them more advanced—is because, simply put, for each doctor in Arizona doing her job, she must count on several fundamental workers that complement her work, from drivers and cooks to assistants and nurses. And without these occupations, the doctor simply cannot do her job.
Thus, if sanity would reign in this country, politicians would have realized by now that welcoming these immigrants is not a burden, but a blessing, especially now when labor markets are tight and labor shortages are adding fuel to an inflation that is already boiling.
In this sense, there is one thing President Biden can do immediately to allow these immigrants to join the labor force: extend eligibility of the existing temporary protected status for Venezuelans to include those that arrived after March 2021, which would immediately give work permits to these thousands of workers. The job of these governors who are bussing immigrants across the country is not to spend taxpayer money creating a national controversy for their own political gain, but rather to use this opportunity to come together and support this move, too. Doing so would assure that the governors are not only acting humanely with people in need, but also helping them to reach their full potential in a new place they want to call home.
This controversy should serve as a reminder that America’s debate on immigration needs more policy and less politics.







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