Poll: Immigration reform & small business owners

The following are key finding about immigration reform from a poll conducted by the American Sustainable Business Council and Main Street Alliance.  The scientific national phone survey of 515 small business owners was conducted last month and covered a wide range of issues.  Other results of the poll will be rolled out this month.  I serve as vice chair of the American Sustainable Business Council Action Fund.
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○ Two thirds of small business owners support a roadmap to citizenship for immigrants already living in the U.S., with support at two to one or more across party lines: 67% of small business owners support a roadmap to citizenship for immigrants currently living and working in the U.S., while 27% oppose it. Republican small business owners (62% support – 31% oppose), Democratic small business owners (82%-13%), and Independent small business owners (65%-29%) all support a roadmap to citizenship for current immigrants by margins of two to one or more.

○ Small business owners favor a roadmap to citizenship for future immigrants over a temporary worker program with no roadmap to citizenship by a margin of more than two to one: 61% of small business owners think the immigration process for future immigrant workers should include a roadmap to citizenship, compared to 27% who think it should be a temporary guest worker program with no roadmap to citizenship.

○ Small business owners’ preference for a roadmap to citizenship for future immigrants over a temporary worker program with no roadmap holds across party lines: Republican small business owners (56% for roadmap to citizenship – 33% for temporary worker program with no roadmap), Democratic small business owners (70%-16%), and Independent small business owners (69%-21%) all prefer a roadmap to citizenship for future immigrant workers over a temporary worker program with no roadmap by 20 points or more.

○ Small business support for immigration reform is animated by multi-faceted views about the role of immigrants in the economy: Three statements outlining potential rationales for the importance of immigration reform to small businesses were presented, and respondents were asked if they agreed or disagreed with each. Over two thirds of small business owners agreed with each statement, with margins of 30 points or more across party lines:

- On a statement highlighting the historical role of immigrant business owners and workers in building strong local economies, small business owners agreed 82%-14%.

- On a statement about the potential of immigrant economic integration to strengthen the small business customer base, small business owners agreed 71%-25%.

- On a statement positing the importance of keeping families together to ensure a productive workforce for small businesses, small business owners agreed 67%-26%.

○ Respondents in this scientific national phone survey were politically diverse, with a strong plurality of Republicans or Independents who lean Republican: 47% identified as Republican (36%) or Independent-leaning Republican (11%); 27% as Democratic (19%) or Independent-leaning Democratic (8%); and 26% as Independent (14%) or other (12%).

Read more from this poll here.

Party loyalty & political fear wins, small business loses…again

The S.C. House voted 69 to 43 along party lines with one exception yesterday to force every small business in the state to only use E-Verify when hiring a worker to prove immigration status. Starting in 2012, regardless of a small business’s ability to access the internet, employers in the state are now required to treat a drivers license or social security card as worthless documentation of citizenship. Only the federal government can give permission to hire a worker (oh, and instantaneously keep track of who you are hiring).

No amount of common sense espoused by numerous Democratic speakers, our small business arguments against E-Verify or the principled opposition by numerous leaders of the state’s Tea Party organizations could overcome the Republican chant—“The U.S. Supreme Court is making us do it”.

If that sounds too simplistic and silly of an explanation, it is. It wasn’t just the recent Supreme Court ruling. It was Governor Haley, Attorney General Wilson and Haley’s Labor, Licensing and Regulation agency insisting that the state kowtow to the Supreme Court or our immigration reform law would be challenged in court. Then it was the Republican leadership in the Senate who bowed to the Haley interpretation of the Court ruling. In the House, not even the “state’s rights” GOP reps put up any objections or even words of caution just as their counterparts in the Senate had failed to do.

The House Republicans just let the Dems point out over and over the impracticality of implementing the E-Verify system in a poor state with limited internet access in our rural counties. It was the Dems that spoke about the dangers of the big federal government dictating the hiring process of private business. It was the Dems that complained about the state adding more and more costly bureaucratic regulations on small businesses. It was the Dems that argued that there were other ways of addressing the court ruling on immigration that wouldn’t burden small businesses.

Ironically it was the Dems that were articulating Tea Party principles to the point that the House Minority Leader, Harry Ott, told the chamber that he felt like a member of the organization.

But yesterday the rank and file Tea Party folks were mislead by Roan Garcia-Quintana, the self-proclaimed executive director of the cyber-group “Americans Have Had Enough Coalition”.

Mr. Garcia-Quintana takes pride in pointing out that he is an “American Citizen of Spanish Heritage”. He does this not because he is actually proud of his heritage but because he feels it gives him a higher moral authority to oppose others with the same heritage who are in the country illegally. Of course it doesn’t but it looks good on his political resume.

Ahhh, yes. There is that issue of a political resume that explains why Mr. Garcia-Quintana was so willing to lead his minions to bombard House members with demands to violate basic Tea Party principles.

You see Mr. Garcia-Quintana is a political consultant to Republican Party candidates. His passionate beating of the email drum to stir up his subscribers had more to do with supporting Republican clients than serving the Tea Party cause. It is also entirely possible that Mr. Garcia-Quintana wanted to open up a business opportunity for one of his political clients, something that he acknowledged in one of his misleading emails (“a small business that simply cannot perform the E-Verify function for itself can designate a 3rd party administrator such as an accountant to do it”).

Mr. Garcia-Quintana is a political hack who has disguised himself as an upstate Tea Party leader in order to put fear into Republican officeholders who don’t tow the party line. His GOP masters expect him to deliver and he did for them yesterday while throwing small businesses and the real Tea Party under the bus.

Top 8 reasons for House to oppose E-Verify mandate

Today the message below from the Small Business Chamber will be given to House members before they debate whether to concur or non-concur with the Senate's mandatory E-Verify amendment to S.20, immigration reform.  A non-concur vote would send the bill to a conference committee to work out the difference between the House and Senate versions.
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Top 8 Reasons

to non-concur with the Senate’s E-Verify mandate amendment

on S.20

1. Be a hero to small business by opposing more burdensome, costly regulations.

2. Champion immigration reform by voting for the final small-business friendly S.20.

3. Oppose big government in small businesses’ business.

4. Fight against federal mandates—health insurance and E-Verify.

5. Support a more effective immigration reform such as a universal DMV E-Verify for all workers—just like the DMV voter ID’s.

6. Show the Senate that the House is the deliberative body.

7. Avoid future small business criticism of “What were you thinking?”

8. You owe us one after Amazon.☺

Don’t Make Small Business do the State’s Work

ACTION ALERT!!!

Don’t Make Small Business do the State’s Work

This week the S.C. House will make an extremely important decision for every small business in the state.  Without any public hearings or thorough discussion of alternative solutions, the Senate voted to mandate that our small businesses not be allowed to use a driver’s license or other state document to determine citizenship when hiring a worker.  Instead the Senate mandated that only the federal E-Verify internet-based system can be used in the future.

Now it is up to the House to protect possibly up to 1/3 of the state’s small businesses (according to the FCC) from either purchasing broadband in order to hire a worker or find the nearest state One-Stop Workforce Center to borrow a computer with broadband access when hiring a worker.  The the small business owner will have to read the 82-page user manual and hope not to make a mistake.

“The E-Verify process has changed multiple times just in the short time that we’ve been using it.  I can imagine that businesses who rarely hire employees would basically have to have new training in the system each time they have to use it.  It would be a pain.”
—Erlinda McCoy, HR Manger, Boykin Contractors, West Columbia

While we do not oppose S.20, immigration reform, the bill can be passed without the late amendment that places an unnecessary regulatory burden on small businesses with the possibility of revoking the business license of those not cooperating.  If the state wants to assist the federal government in verifying citizenship, it should do the work itself instead of mandating the burden be put on small businesses.  Let the state use E-Verify when issuing driver’s licenses or other state approved documents to be used during the hiring process. 

Call or email your House member today.  You can find a list of all House members along with contact information by clicking here.  You can also call the House Clerk’s Office at 803-734-2403 and ask to be connected to your Representative.

Ask your House member to vote against mandating all businesses to use E-Verify.  Tell them that it is an unnecessary burden on small businesses.  Feel free to use any of the above information. 

Thank you for your support.

Frank Knapp, Jr.

President & CEO