Setting the record straight on Immigration

In a letter to the editor to the Statesman Journal, Kelly O’Brien, the coordinator for the Coalition for a Working Oregon, has responded to one submitted last month by Lyneil Vandermolen.

According to O’Brien, Vandermolen’s letter was ”riddled with inaccuracies and innuendo”. About Vandermollen’s position, she had this to say:

“Unfortunately, extremists are less about enacting true, meaningful immigration reform and more about confusing an already complicated issue in order to push their own agenda and ideals."

In her article, O’Brien also took apart Vandermollen’s notion that an enforcement only approach is the only way. She said, “this country can't end with just enforcement, because enforcement alone will never solve the larger problem….Only comprehensive immigration reform at the federal level will provide a meaningful and long-lasting solution to this problem."

O’Brien went on to add that Oregonians want a comprehensive approach to immigration reform and that polls reflect these feelings. She finished by saying that “We have to do what is right for our country and our economy”.

The full letter can be read by linking here.

The Coalition for a Working Oregon is “the first consolidated effort by Oregon employers to promote a thoughtful, sensible approach to immigration reform on the federal level. The CWO is comprised of 20 top Oregon employer groups representing well over 300,000 Oregon workers.”

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No Match Rule Would Damage Oregon’s Economy, Study Shows

A new study released yesterday from The Coalition for a Working Oregon (CWO) predicts a significant reductions in economic output and job loss in the state if the federal “No Match” rule is implemented.

According to the study, the threat to Oregon’s economy is significant if the federal law takes effect and could cause a loss of 173,500 jobs in the short-term, or 7.7% of Oregon’s workforce along with a reduction in statewide annual production of up to $17.7 billion.

The long term effects could be a loss of 147,000 jobs, an annual reduction in state output of up to 14.7 billion, a tax loss of $656 million and an overall economic loss of $7.2 billion.”

The Coalition for a Working Oregon further said in their press release yesterday that an enforcement-only approach such as the “No Match” rule is particularly damaging to Oregon’s labor-dependent industries because it provides no mechanism to replace workers removed from the system. And that the only way to fix our broken immigration system is for the federal government to pass comprehensive reform.

Other points included in the report shows that departure of Oregon’s undocumented workers due to the no match rule would not likely to have a significant effect on Oregon’s unemployment rate. Mismatch in skills, education and location between undocumented workers and Oregon’s unemployed would make it extremely difficult for jobs being done by undocumented immigrants to be filled.

As for tax revenues, the study also showed that the departure of undocumented immigrants from Oregon would lower state and local tax revenues by an estimated $400 million to $656 million per year.

The Coalition for a Working Oregon is comprised of 20 Oregon employer groups who represent over 300,000 Oregon workers. The complete copy of the report can be downloaded at http://www.oregoncanwork.org/.

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