The Santa Clara Chamber of Commerce, along with many other chambers of commerce in California, is continuing to push for comprehensive immigration reform legislation this year to ensure our region and the state’s critical industries will have the workers and talent needed to create necessary California jobs.
Coalition for Reform
The California Chamber of Commerce and a coalition of more than 70 local chambers of commerce have emphasized that immigration reform is more important to California than any other state, with the technology, agriculture and tourism industries, among others, depending on reform to thrive.
“As a border city with a booming tech industry, San Diego is uniquely impacted by immigration policy,” said Jerry Sanders, president and CEO of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce.
A robust temporary worker program is among the critical needs for the state’s agriculture-rich areas.
“Comprehensive immigration reform is a stepping stone along the path to economic recovery for this state and especially for the Central Valley,” said Cindy Pollard, president and CEO of the Greater Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce. “If we don’t fix the very broken system now, we cannot expect a healthier economy anytime soon.”
California is home to about 23% of the nation’s undocumented immigrants, half of whom have lived here for more than 10 years.
Cindy Roth, president and CEO of the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce offered this summation: “Immigration reform is an important issue for Inland Southern California, the state, and the entire nation. Immigrants have always been and continue to be an essential part of our state and national workforce, and the lack of an effective and comprehensive national policy regarding immigration has resulted in a multitude of challenges for businesses.
“Our leaders in Washington, D.C. need to reform the national immigration policy so that it includes an earned pathway to legal status by establishing a guest worker program, improvements to the visa program, steps to secure our national borders, and stricter enforcement of existing laws.”
The Santa Clara Chamber of Commerce has joined this coalition for these very same reasons as outlined above. We must resolve the immigration status of over 2.6 million California residents. Doing so would unlock billions of dollars of consumer spending and investment. Please join us in communicating your support of immigration reform by sending me an email to steve.vandorn@santaclara.org. I will send your responses to the California Chamber of Commerce to further illustrate our support for this much needed reform.
Silicon Valley Central 