May 24, 2007
Urge your senators to support comprehensive immigration reform
Current situation:
The Senate is debating legislation to reform our broken immigration system (S. 1348)
and is being bombarded by anti-immigrant groups.
This bill is the best opportunity
for true immigration reform during the past 20 years. NRCA must ensure senators
hear the concerns of the roofing industry
now.
How your business is affected:
The roofing industry faces chronic labor shortages. By 2012, the roofing industry
alone will need an additional 70,000 new workers. These workers will not come from
a native-born work force that is aging. During the next decade, workers who are
55 and older will increase 49 percent while workers who are 25-54 will grow only
5 percent. Further, by 2015, the birthrate of U.S. women will fall below "replacement
level" to 1.91 children per woman. With demographic trends working against the U.S.
economy, foreign workers are necessary to help fill the jobs for services and products
that U.S. citizens demand.
Solution for the roofing industry:
Tell your senators to support immigration reform that:
- Addresses the undocumented work force already here
- Contains a robust temporary-worker program that accommodates the needs of the economy
and ensures adequate visa numbers, including a mechanism to adjust numbers based
on market demand
- Has an easy-to-use employee eligibility verification system (the program will affect
all 7 million businesses in the U.S. and must be rolled out and implemented in a
realistic fashion—businesses must have a fast, reliable and cost-efficient
way to verify all workers)
- Preempts state laws (It is imperative to ensure federal law supersedes the hodgepodge
of state and local laws and ordinances. Employers must have easy-to-understand and
reliable immigration laws.)
- Does not hold roofing contactors liable for a subcontractor's violation of immigration
laws
What to do:
Debate on immigration reform will continue when Congress returns June 4 from its
Memorial Day recess. It is critical that you contact your senators to urge them
to support reform that addresses your concerns.
- Attend a town-hall meeting while the Senate is in recess to let them know how you
feel. Find your senators' town-hall schedule by contacting their offices using the
number below.
- Call your senators. Call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 225-3121.
- Contact your senators by e-mail. Visit
www.senate.gov and click Find Your Senators in the upper right-hand corner.
For more information, contact Craig Silvertooth, NRCA's director of federal affairs,
at (202) 546-7584 or
csilvertooth@nrca.net.