It is way past time that the U.S. developed a better approach to immigration that will help our communities thrive and our labor economy become more stable. We need an efficient and modern way of handling immigrants desiring to enter the U.S. for either asylum or economic reasons.

Our history with immigration started badly enough and even after all this time has rarely been done in a good way. The early colonizers regarded themselves above everyone else, including Native Americans, even though they were immigrants too. They brought servants and slaves with them and soon enough racism was born in America. A growing and hungry country would overlook the bigotry and prejudice that greeted each wave of immigrants and keep expanding opportunities for all of them, except for the former slaves.

Nowadays, immigrants are once again seen in a negative manner and the U.S. government is hampered by politics to do anything about it. The Pandemic has made things worse by slowing migration and keeping people stuck at borders. Also, our own foreign policies have caused thousands to escape brutal conditions in their home countries and seek asylum here hoping to restore some dignity in their shattered lives.

Dealing with Reality

We have three groups of immigrants that need to addressed; those who are undocumented living in the U.S., Dreamers and those still waiting to enter the U.S. The immediate concern for lawmakers is to get everyone who is presently in our borders documented as quickly as possible. We should know the number of people who need documents to live and work in the U.S. and for Dreamers to be secure in their future here.

We need to expand our processing centers so they are able to handle unexpected surges in immigration requests and treat all who seek entry with compassion and dignity.

Ohio could Lead by Example

Instead of waiting on the federal government to fix this problem, Ohio could devise its own form of guest worker status for undocumented workers. The emphasis is to get these workers legal right away and ensure they're paying into the system. In this way, families can remain together and become a viable part of their community.

The U.S. has a large, potential workforce that couldn’t come at a better time. The Pandemic has left huge gaps in the labor ranks for a number of industries and so it is in the best interests of government and industry to work together to replenish these jobs as soon as possible.

Ohio businesses ranging from fastfood to heavy industry are badly in need of workers right now and would gladly hire workers from abroad, provided they are legal. In the coming years, with the projects that Ohio has planned like Intel, and many more that are rebuilding our supply chains here, will require thousands of new workers so it is imperative that Ohio lawmakers start addressing this critical need for Ohio businesses.