NAHB: LEGAL immigration is part of the solution

You may have received communication from NAHB in recent days in which NAHB asks for your help in supporting comprehensive immigration reform.

NAHB's objective is to address the immigration problem that has resulted in millions of illegal immigrants in our country while denying home builders, as well as many other businesses, sufficient access to immigrant workers with status to work legally in our country.

Many unscrupulous contractors flaunt the law and hire illegal immigrants to work on their projects, giving them an unfair competitive advantage until they are ultimately caught.  This has resulted in millions of illegal immigrants in our country, and Congress' reaction has been to limit legal immigration.  Ultimately, the problem is not solved and people continue to pour into our country illegally.

NAHB's objective is to level the playing field and make the necessary number of immigrant laborers legally available to home builders.  By doing so, the unscrupulous contractors will lose their advantage.  In addition, comprehensive reform will take away the incentive they have to violate the law by allowing them to meet their labor needs legally.

NAHB's communication has made the following points to our members of Congress:

• Labor shortages are harming home builders, hurting consumers and slowing the housing recovery.
• Home builders are experiencing delays in completing homes, and in some cases have had to cancel projects due to a shortage of workers.
• These delays and production bottlenecks are increasing the cost of building a home, which in turn is raising costs for home buyers.
• To fix our labor shortages, Congress must create a program that would allow more immigrants to legally enter the construction workforce when home builders can’t find American workers to fill the jobs that are needed.

To read NAHB's complete talking points, click here.

The objective is simple: recognize that home builders need to hire immigrant laborers from time-to-time, just like many other industries.  Sometimes immigrant labor has a specialized skill not readily available from domestic labor.  Sometimes home builders just need more people.  Either way, immigration policy should recognize this need and accommodate it.

If you agree, contact your member of Congress and tell him or her to support comprehensive immigration reform.