Editorial by The Mankato (Minnesota) Free Press | Immigration: Migrant workers help employers, economy

When headlines sound the dangers and social upheaval of unfettered immigration at the southern border, the rest of the story gets lost.

That story includes all the immigrants who come to the United States, legally apply for entry, get a temporary work permit and then fill jobs no one else will take.

They send money back to families, helping another generation move to the U.S. to pursue the American dream.

In fact, an in-depth report by the Associated Press suggests a large influx of migrant workers has bolstered the workforce and kept the nation out of a recession as the Federal Reserve kept interest rates high.

While employers were ready to pay higher wages to get workers after the pandemic, an influx of foreign-born workers filled the jobs and reduced the shortage. Some 2.7 million foreign born workers, ages 25-54, entered the workforce over the past four years, according to analysis of government data by the Economic Policy Institute. That’s 96% of the prime age workers added over the same period.

Brookings Institution economists came to the same conclusions showing the U.S. economy could take twice as many workers as previously thought while keeping inflation in check. Immigrant workers, again, made up the difference.

And employers are welcoming the workers. A hotel business in Orlando has a 3,500 person workforce that is 85% immigrants. A dairy farm in Maine has 50% immigrant workforce. Both owners say they could not operate without the immigrants.

Minnesota could also benefit from growing the immigrant work force. The state remains short 40,000 workers that were in the labor force before the pandemic, and it is one of the slowest growing states for population.

A state report showed if Minnesota simply returned to its traditional rate of immigration in 2015, it would solve 25% of the state’s workforce shortages.

Minnesota political leaders of both parties favor more immigration to help solve workplace shortages and bolster our population growth that would bolster tax revenues to help support the new and existing workforce.

Of course, ex-President Donald Trump, the GOP frontrunner for president, has vowed to create the biggest immigrant deportation program ever, while President Joe Biden has been working on a compromise immigration reform with Republicans.

While Trump demonizes immigrants in an effort to create fear among voters, his plan would likely severely exacerbate workforce shortages and create more inflation.

We need immigrants. We always have. And the American economy thrives when we offer hard-working people a piece of the American dream.

— The Mankato (Minnesota) Free Press