Take a look at the following links and articles for our upcoming series on immigration issues:


Lydia Cotton

A United SC

ACLU and Civil Rights Coalition File Lawsuit Against South Carolina's Anti-Immigrant Law

The United Church of Christ Immigration Page

The Charleston Chamber of Commerce Position on Immigration
Week of January 9, 2012
Event Highlights How Smarter Immigration Laws will Create More American Jobs
During its Quarterly Meeting of the Membership, the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce and The Partnership for a New American Economy presented a discussion with business and academic leaders on how smarter immigration laws would benefit our economy, with a special address from Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr. and keynote presenter Richard Hermann, immigration attorney and author of Immigrant, Inc.
Local panelist included Roger Warren, president, Kiawah Island Golf Resort; Steven Mungo, CEO, The Mungo Companies;
Edward Krug, PhD, associate professor Regenerative Medicine & Cell Biology, the Medical University of South Carolina.
“The Chamber has consistently supported comprehensive immigration reform at the federal level to ensure a uniform approach,” stated Ron Jones, Clawson & Staubes and Chamber chairman of the board. “We need new immigration laws that are fair and balanced. These laws must meet the needs of our growing economy and the test of common sense. Only through this kind of comprehensive approach can an effective solution be reached.”
With high unemployment, it is often asserted that cutting down on immigration will help protect the jobs that do exist for American workers. But, to a large extent, precisely the reverse is true. In the long term, we need to convince more Americans to pursue the fields where gaps exist. But, in the short term, smarter immigration policies can help fill these gaps and equip our companies with the talent they need to compete and grow.
“Our ability to operate at full capacity is dependent on the opportunity to bring in legal foreign seasonal workers for jobs that American workers have consistently proven unwilling to undertake,” explained panelist Roger Warren.
The government estimates that in the innovation rich fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (“STEM”), new jobs will be created three times faster than the rest of the economy. Yet at universities across the country, we are training the brightest minds in the world and then send them abroad to compete against us. For labor-intensive industries like hospitality, landscaping, agriculture, construction, and many others, companies operate at less than full capacity because there is an insufficient legal avenue for workers to come here.
“In the construction trades, the immigrant workers provide skilled labor for positions that were largely unfilled by Americans. Americans workers have voted with their feet and not pursued manual construction careers, nor have the older workers encouraged their children to follow in their footsteps. Subsequently, they never taught their trade to their offspring and construction “trade schools” have all but vanished for lack of interested students,” shared panelist Steven Mungo. “There cannot be a rebound in housing should we not have access to those skilled workers going forward.”
Filling gaps creates jobs. According to a recent report by the American Enterprise Institute and the Partnership for a New American Economy, each additional foreign graduate with an advanced degree from a U.S. university who stays and works in a STEM field creates an average of 2.62 American jobs. The same report found that each temporary non-agriculture low skilled visa that goes to workers in our hospitality and other industries creates an average of 4.64 American jobs.

ADDITIONAL LINKS, ADDED 2/14/12...

"Big Money Behind State Laws" from the New York Times

"Do I Look Illegal?" YouTube video