Drop in Legal Immigration

Floor Speech

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Mr. AUCHINCLOSS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize an unaddressed contributor to labor shortages across our economy, a drop in legal immigration.

Researchers at the University of California at Davis found that: ``By the end of 2021 there were about 2 million fewer working-age immigrants living in the United States than there would have been if the pre-2020 immigration trend had continued unchanged.''

This has hit certain industries hard, including food, hospitality, construction, transportation, and healthcare, particularly nursing, at a time when our economy is overheating in its recovery from COVID-19.

A significant part of lowering cost and avoiding a recession is expanding the productive capacity of the economy. Until we address staffing shortfalls, we will continue to artificially constrain the supply side of our economy and drive up costs for everyday people. We must recognize and reverse this trend by clearing the visa backlog, documenting immigrants and Dreamers already here, and increasing caps for both immigration and refugee resettlement. It is not just a moral imperative; it is an economic one.

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