Immigration Reform and Control Immigration, while unescapably the central element aiding the establishment and growth of the United States, has long been a topic of debate between opposing ideologues in the country especially members of Congress. With the passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, many hoped that all jobs across the country would be filled only by individuals legally allowed to obtain them citizens and authorized aliens (Chishti & Kamasaki, 2014). Since all employers are required by this law to verify that employees are eligible to hold a job in the United States (US), human resource departments have a heavy responsibility in this regard. In reality, however, it is widely known that a large number of employees …show more content…
One is the reliance on illegal or undocumented workers to fill the bulk of jobs in specific sectors, and the other is a difficulty identified by employers in more skilled industries—such as science, technology, engineering, and math (also known as STEM)—of retaining the best employees. This latter point was made by Rebecca Peters, director of a major accounting firm, CFGI, who noted: “What’s often lost in the debate with this election is the need to reform our legal employment-based immigration system to keep America’s economy growing…by looking at the contributions of entrepreneurs, Fortune 500s and those immigrants with STEM degrees” (Maurer, 2016, par. 13). In short, a too-aggressive approach to immigration reform results in fewer highly-skilled potential employees trying to enter the US to find high paying …show more content…
“If you get rid of 26 percent of my employees, I guess I’m going to have to terminate some of the contracts, unless I’m willing to break the law” (O’Brien, 2018, par. 4). The difficulty for human resource managers is obvious, since there are a very limited number of Americans willing to fill jobs that were formerly held by immigrants (whether legal or not). No one argues against the need to dramatically decrease the number of undocumented immigrants currently working in the US, but the question is how to do that in a way that treats people with respect and still allows human resource departments to have a wide selection of qualified employees to choose from. Reasonable laws should be passed to insure that those wanting to come to the US to find a better life can do so as long as they will become productive members of