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Researchers and other experts expect millions of new construction jobsin coming months due to the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, CHIPS Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.

That's in addition to the 407,000 unfilled jobs in the construction industry now.

But where will those workers come from?

Immigrants have played a critical role in the U.S. construction industry for generations, from the creation of the Transcontinental Railroad in the West to the skyscrapers that define New York City in the East.But unlike in these past generations, workers tasked to improve Americas infrastructure this time around likely won't hail from outside the country, unless there's a dramatic change to current immigration policy, industry officials said.

"Construction is one of many industries that historically relied much more than they've been able to in the last three years on foreign-born workers," said Ken Simonson, chief economist at the Associated General Contractors of America, during a recent webinar on finding more workers to help build America's infrastructure. "There have been a number of immigration programs that have been allowed to lapse."

The Biden administration recently temporarily extended the window for expired work permits by another 18 months, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The move had been in the works for months as officials looked for ways to combat the risk of workforce shortages, Politico reported.

USCIS is also seeking ways to address a backlog of roughly 1.5 million work permit applications. House and Senate Democrats have proposed bills to reduce the employment-based backlogs, but there does not seem to be enough Republican support to bring them across the finish line, said John Dorer, president of Immigration Office Solutions and CEO of eb3.work, a New York-based platform that connects employers with foreign nationals seeking to work legally in the U.S.

Things are stalled for the moment, this is typical in a pre-election environment, said Dorer. This may change after the midterm elections.

In some areas, the push for foreign-born workers is seen as a political hot button. For example, in Florida, migrant workers are leading clean-up efforts to repair the damage from Hurricane Ian, according to Time magazine, despite Governor Ron DeSantis' efforts to deport illegal migrants from the South to Northern states.

Industry sources told Construction Dive that immigration reform could help alleviate endemic labor shortages in the industry, but that lawmakers thus far have lacked the political gumption to put such measures in place.

While the ideas on how to fix our nations immigration system are not lacking, there is a lack of will to do the work required to find a compromise, said Kristen Swearingen, Associated Builders and Contractors vice president of legislative and political affairs. Immigration reform will likely go largely unaddressed while the arguments over partisan proposals get louder and employers continue to struggle under the current system.

For most contractors on the front lines, the need for immigration reform to help rebuild America is obvious.

"When you talk about immigration, it's my opinion that any type of reform would be better for the country, as well as the construction industry, compared to what we've had the last 25 years," said Stephen Sines, vice president of operations at the Danbury, Connecticut-based construction management firm Morganti Group, during the AGC webinar. "There has to be a starting point somewhere."

On the other side of the country, of all the challenges facing construction, one California construction pro pointed to immigration reform as the single most impactful issue for contractors.

"Our growth is going to be hampered without new labor sources," said Chris Bailey, senior vice president of integrated solutions at San Francisco Bay Area-based general contractor XL Construction. "Theyve got to come from somewhere."

And Frank Ciminelli, president and CEO of construction management firm Arc Building Partners, recently told Construction Dive the labor shortage remains the biggest challenge in the construction industry today.

Meanwhile, immigration reform is "far and away" the top national policy concern of business advocates at the state level, according to a report from law firm Littler.

Current efforts

The Biden administration is currently considering whether changes to immigration policy should be one of its major pushes following the November midterm election, especially as migrant workers are generally a turnkey solution for labor shortage issues.

But specifics on what those changes might entail remain vague. Biden did propose the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 on his first day in office, but there have been no updates on that bill after nearly two years. That bill provided pathways to citzenship for undocumented workers, reinforcements to border control, increased assistance to Central American countries and improvements to immigration court processes, according to a White House release.

Brain Turmail, vice president of public affairs and strategic initiatives at the Associated General Contractors of America, said immigration reform could help shorten the gap between labor demand and labor supply.

The short answer would be yes, said Turmail. Allowing more people with construction skills to lawfully enter the country to meet workforce shortages would be a good short-term solution while we rebuild the domestic pipeline for preparing American workers.

However, other Biden administration policies could render any immigration reform plan unworkable for the construction industry, Turmail said.

The Inflation Reduction Act includes, for the first time ever, minimum apprenticeship quotas for projects receiving the higher level of tax credits available from the act, said Turmail. This will severely limit the pool of workers from which firms can draw on to hire for these projects, and all but eliminate lawful immigration as a short-term option.

Apprenticeship quotas could limit the number of immigrants working on these projects because those coming into the country legally would presumably already have the construction skills necessary to qualify for a temporary worker visa. In other words, they would have the experience and knowledge needed for those jobs, but not the apprenticeship pedigree that's stipulated in the act.

Straightforward immigration reform could solve that problem, Turmail said.

It could be something as relatively simple as putting in place a temporary work visa program specifically for construction, said Turmail. Or it could be broader, and include a path to legal status for undocumented workers, tighter border security and a construction-specific temporary visa program.

Nevertheless, Congress is not expected to tackle this issue anytime soon.

Legislation such as the Essential Workers for Economic Advancement Act, a bill that establishes a new nonimmigrant visa for temporary nonagricultural workers to fill jobs that have remained open for a certain amount of time and are located in areas where the unemployment rate sits below 7.9%, is not currently being debated, according to ABC.

We have been pushing for any and all immigration reform possible, said Turmail. Unfortunately, it remains an issue most politicians like to talk about, but too few are willing to act on.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program earlier this month. That decision blocks new applications but allows current DACA enrollees to renew their status.ABC recently called to move forward on DACA and other immigration reform legislation.

U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanens ruling on DACA comes after nine states filed a lawsuit last year claiming they are harmed financially due to healthcare, education and other costs when immigrants are allowed to remain in the country illegally.

Some construction companies advocate for the Office of Foreign Labor Certification to start charging fees for Foreign Labor Certification applications. This would allow the OFLC to improve current slow processing times by having the ability to increase staffing, said Dorer. The department currently relies on funding from Congress.

Any immigration reform will likely have to wait until after the midterm elections, said Turmail.

There is some talk of attaching some amount of immigration reform to the end-of-year funding bill, he said. Besides that, a lot of talk.

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Construction pros call for immigration reform to fill surge of open jobs - Construction Dive

WASHINGTON - Observing how recent responses to migrants demonstrate the troubling convergence of our broken immigration system and the political divisions of our time, Bishop Mario E. Dorsonville, auxiliary bishop of Washington and chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Migration, issued a reflection on the Catholic Churchs enduring commitment to comprehensive immigration reform and welcoming the stranger as part of its unwavering defense of human life in all its forms. This coincides with the ongoing celebration of Respect Life Month, during which the Catholic Church in the United States invites the faithful to consider more deeply why every human life is valuable and to reflect on how to build a culture that protects life from conception to natural death.

We simply cannot allow partisan division to continue to impede the needed interventions of government, Bishop Dorsonville stated. And while there are no easy solutions to the challenges we face, there is a just path forward that is waiting to be paved by those who are committed to the future of our country, he added, alluding to this years theme for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, Building the Future with Migrants and Refugees.

Bishop Dorsonville expressed the need for a just immigration reform that provides for the full integration of long-time residents, promotes family unity, honors due process, respects the rule of law, expands legal pathways, preserves and strengthens humanitarian protections, prioritizes dignified alternatives to detention, recognizes the contributions of foreign-born workers, protects the vulnerable, and addresses the root causes of migration.

Before concluding his reflection, the bishop affirmed: Whether Afghan, Ukrainian, or Venezuelan, Dreamer or undocumented farmworker, asylum seeker, migrant, or refugee, all are imbued by God with an inviolable dignity.

Bishop Dorsonvilles full reflection, Migration and the Judgement of the Nations, is available here.

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Media Contact:Chieko Noguchi202-541-3200

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U.S. Bishops' Migration Chairman Calls for Immigration Reform that Recognizes the 'Inviolable Dignity' of All Newcomers - USCCB

A solid majority of Americans believe that the surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border is a crisis.Some of them, to be sure, decry family separation and violations of the rights of asylum seekers, while others emphasize threats to national security.

That said, many Americans are drawing the wrong conclusions from the crisis. Stigmatizing individuals and families who enter the country legally as well as illegally and denying or downplaying the contributions of undocumented people who have lived and worked here for decades, they do not recognize that increased immigration is essential to addressing inflation and the great and growing labor shortage in the United States.

Drawing on xenophobia, which is deeply embedded in American political culture, and espoused most fervently by white Christian nationalists, Donald Trump has framed the issue of immigration for his MAGA base. He has used the terms invasion, criminals, drug dealers, and terrorists, hundreds of times.As he announced his candidacy for president in 2015, Trump declared that Mexico is not sending their best. In July 2016, he maintained, without evidence, that decades of record immigration have produced lower wages and higher unemployment for our citizens. In 2018, Trump said When somebody comes in, we must immediately, without judges or court cases, bring them back from where they came. And, of course, building a wall became the Trump administrations actual and metaphorical solution to Americas problems.

Not surprisingly, then, a majority of Americans see the surge of migrants as an invasion, and 24 percent(39 percent of Republicans) believe, incorrectly, that immigrants are more likely to commit crimes than individuals born in the United States; 38 percent (56 percent of Republicans) believe that immigrants are more likely to use public assistance, and 39 percent (60 percent of Republicans) blame immigrants for smuggling most of the fentanyl into the United States.

Although more than two-thirds of Americans say that legal immigration is a benefit to the country, 31 percent (42 percent of Republicans) claim it is a national problem; 38 percent (two-thirds of Republicans) want to decrease the number of immigrants permitted to enter the country; 79 percent of Republicans think its important to deport a large number of the immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally. More than half of Republicans agree that native-born Americans are being systematically replaced by immigrants.

While they blame the Biden administration for the crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border that President Trumps draconian policies did not solve, Congressional Republicans continue to oppose employment-based as well as comprehensive immigration reform legislation.

Xenophobes are drowning out supporters of immigrants from around the world, including asylum seekers, who have been trapped in a Kafkaesque bureaucratic logjam, exacerbated by Trump administration caps on refugees, reductions in temporary employment visas, and cuts in programs and personnel at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.

And nativists have made it more difficult to consider compelling evidence that adding immigrants to the labor force will produce a stronger and more competitive American economy.

Between 2010 and 2020, labor economists point out, population growth was the second lowest in U.S. history. In about 12 years, adults 65 or older will outnumber children under 18 for the first time. For every person on Social Security, there will be 2.1 workers paying into a system that needs 2.8 to remain solvent.

This July, employers advertised 11.2 million jobs, but only 5.7 million workers sought employment, the biggest gap in American history.To reduce inflation, the gap should be less than 2.5 million.

COVID-related withdrawals from full-time jobs, most pronounced among seniors, and a dramatic reduction in annual immigration, which by 2021 was one-quarter of what it had been in 2016, have deprived the labor market of about 1.6 million workers.

Legal immigrants constitute 17 percent of the civilian labor force. Including the 7.6 million illegals, immigrants fill a large proportion of so-called unskilled jobs in agriculture, hotels, restaurants, gardening, housekeeping, and health care that are shunned by many native-born workers. Contrary to the stereotype, immigrants are also well represented in computer science, mathematics, and an array of STEM fields, where job openings now outnumber qualified applicants by about 3 million.

Congress should address the crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border and the status of the 11 million illegal immigrants who live in this country. But inflammatory rhetoric and partisan stunts are not constructive.

Nor should we allow xenophobia to trump a fundamental tenet of the American Creed, represented by the lady with the lamp who resides near Ellis Island, that welcomes immigrants who can help ensure a more prosperous future for themselves and their fellow Americans.

Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell University. He is the co-author (with Stuart Blumin) of Rude Republic: Americans and Their Politics in the Nineteenth Century.

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The immigration crisis isnt what you think it is - The Hill

U.S. Rep. William "Bill" Keating, a Democrat from Bourne, will face Republican challenger Jesse Brown, of Plymouth, this November, as the congressman tries for a seventh term representing the Cape and Islands in Congress.

The 9th District includes 46 municipalities that stretch from Norwell to New Bedford and encompasses Cape Cod and the Islands.

More: State election is coming up. Everything you need about voting this fall

Elected for two-year terms, representatives serve within the U.S. House of Representatives that creates federal laws. They typically introduce bills and resolutions, offer amendmentsand serve on committees.

The general election is Nov. 8.

The Cape Cod Times asked both candidates about their stance onimmigration, abortionand healthcare.

Brown pointed to the opioid crisis when asked how the lack of immigration reform has hurt Cape Cod and the Islands. Opioid deaths have risen 9% in Massachusetts, he said.

"Itallows the drugs to flow over that southwest border where the majority of the Fentanyl and heroin comes from," he said.

Brown called himself a strong supporter of securing the southern border, saying "they're undermanned" and need more funding to provide more personnel patrolling the border.

A broken immigration system leaves Cape and Islands' restaurants, hotelsand other businesses without adequate staffing, Keating said, noting hospitality is the region's leading industry.

More: Brown faces Keating in congressional race this November. What to expect

We need workers. Everywhere Ive gone in our region, its always in the top-three topics of discussion: We dont have workers, he said. We had to fight tooth and nail it shouldnt be a partisan issue, but it has been with H2B and J1 workers, making sure they are there for the season.

The House passed a bill that would create a path to permanent status for DACA recipients and other undocumented immigrants, such as young people who came to the U.S. as children after 2007, Keating said, but the Senate has yet to act on it.

On both sides, there are people who will not be satisfied, but we can forge common sense changes that improve the system and allow for a quicker legal immigration system to work and make sure at the border were processing people faster, dealing with issues and making sure its more secure. We can do these things together, Keating said.

As a congressman, Keating said he voted in support of a bill protecting abortion rights in July, but noted the Senate did not move to act on the bill. The move followed the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade in late June.

The watershed Dobbs v.Jackson Women's Health Organizationdecision overturned Roe v. Wade and eraseda reproductive right the high court established nearly five decades ago.

"People believe that those choices have to remain with a woman and her doctor," Keating said.

He also pointed to Justice Clarence Thomas' concurring opinion, which said the Supreme Court "should reconsider" past rulings that codified rights to contraception, same-sex relationshipsand same-sex marriage.

What to know: Candidates to represent Cape & Islands in Congress answer questions

"This is something where not only is the government in the doctor's office they're in the bedroom, too, with this decision," Keating said.

Brown said the overturning of Roe v. Wade brought the power back to the states and "it's completed."

"I mean, that's in a completely different branch of government that I'm going to be in. What I've always said is Keating, my opponent, has been in that office long enough," Brown said. "There was always a chance that the Supreme Court could have overturned it and maybe he should have been working on that, so we wouldn't be in this situation."

Brown said he would not back a federal ban on abortion.

"One of my platforms is bringing the power back to the states," Brown said. "There's a lot of things that we need to bring power back to the states and power back to the people, not at the federal level."

Keating touted his support of the Inflation Reduction Act, which will allow for competitive pricing into Medicare and caps out-of-pocket expenses for individuals in Medicare to $2,000 a year.

These were budget busters for families and individuals highest inflationary factor in healthcare, Keating said.

Brown said he would like to see all Americans gain from the Veteran Administrations ability to negotiate lower prices for drugs.

More: Midterm election: Candidate profiles, voter information and more.

"We need to do that at a level that everybody in America can benefit from," Brown said.

He said he did not support the Inflation Reduction Act, saying his opposition stems from additional funding for the Internal Revenue Service.

Zane Razzaq writes about housing and real estate. Reach her at zrazzaq@capecodonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @zanerazz.

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Congressional race: Brown, Keating on immigration, abortion, healthcare - Cape Cod Times

Increased input costs for farmers and rising grocery prices for consumers are just some of the consequences of recent turns in the global commodity markets and rising costs of food processing, transportation and labor.

The Federal Reserve Banks of Minneapolis and Kansas City hosted a virtual forum on Oct. 7 to highlight ag and food inflation and the financial implications that come from it. The event was also meant as an opportunity to hear from industry leaders in the Midwest about how inflationary pressures are affecting supply chains.

Agriculture is more than just an economic driver for the seven-state region covered by the Kansas City Fed, as well as the Midwest states covered by the Ninth District Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, said Nathan Kauffman an economist and vice president of the Kansas City Fed, whose role is to lead banking efforts in regards to research and outreach in agriculture.

The industry also serves as an important foundation to our nation's food supply, said Kauffman.

With farm production costs estimated to be about 25% higher this year than they were in 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and fertilizer costs anticipated to be on average about 50% higher than they were the last year what's causing the surge?

Kauffman said it's a combination of both supply and demand, but there are other factors such as labor shortages and transportation disruptions that have been key drivers of rising costs, he said.

Rising costs and the implications

Kaufmann explained how prices of agricultural products remained low and stable in the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic. Prices increased less than a percent from 2016-20, according to USDA data. But with the pandemic came a surge by more than 50% in the last year and a half, he said.

However, the increase in prices across the board has led to a dramatic rebound in the U.S. agricultural economy, said Kauffman, with farm income expected to be one of the highest on record this year.

Supported by higher prices and increased profits, the value of farm real estate throughout the Midwest, just as one example, is more than 25% higher than before the pandemic, he said.

Economic conditions before the pandemic were leading to what Kauffman called gradual increases in financial stress in the ag industry. Many financial institutions are now reporting a sharp turnaround in the strength of their lending portfolios.

It is important to recognize that the U.S. farm economy is in a much stronger position than what it was before the pandemic, when there had been growing concerns about the industry's financial health, he said.

Consumers are feeling inflationary pressure on their grocery budgets, and the same factors driving up agricultural prices have also influenced the price customers pay for food.

Similar to production costs, from 2010 to 2020 food prices increased on average of nearly 2% per year, said Kauffman. Currently, food prices are more than 10% higher than a year ago, and have continued to rise in recent months.

A surge in commodity prices is only partly to blame for that, he said.

Less than 10% of the cost of food is determined by the cost of farm production, said Kauffman.

Costs associated with things like packaging, transportation and energy account for 10%, he explained, while processing accounts for about 17%, and wholesale and retail distribution costs comprise about 26%. Food service accounts for just shy of 30% of the total cost of food, according to Kauffman.

So while agricultural commodity prices are linked to food prices, especially on a global scale and perhaps for some food products in particular changes in ag prices have only a limited effect on the prices consumers pay for food, said Kaufmann.

Even once production costs begin to ease, Kauffman said that food prices may not decrease as quickly.

Given the importance of other factors that also affect the cost of food, he said.

Beth Ford, president and CEO of Land OLakes, shared how inflationary pressures impact the supply chain of the Fortune 200 food production company that is also a 100-year-old farmer-owned cooperative.

We see the whole value chain, from processing, farm level, all the way until retail, said Ford.

Ford urged Congress to move ahead with immigration reform during the Oct. 7 forum, which she said could relieve some of the labor problems putting the squeeze on the cooperative and industry as a whole. She said that labor is the biggest concern for Land O Lakes members and is the issue she hears most about from them.

Ford called on the U.S. Senate to take immediate action to finish work on the Farm Workforce Modernization Act.

Do it this season, she said of the window before midterm elections, after which any reform legislation would have to start over.

The Farm Workforce Modernization Act which would allow some annual permanent visas for agricultural guest workers and would make farm workers now in the country illegally able to be here legally was passed by the House in March 2021 but the bill and negotiations have stalled in the Senate.

We're a couple million workers short, so what will it take? said Ford.

She said what holds up immigration reform is a larger debate around border security, but the focus should instead be on U.S. farmers and ag workers.

I look at it obviously right at the farm level, for labor, and it has been a mainstay of our economy and economic growth, said Ford of U.S. labor You recognize the number of acres that don't get planted or harvested because there is no labor. We have a global food supply challenge, and we need to move past this and get to a pragmatic solution.

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Navigating ag and food inflation includes calls for immigration reform, speakers at Fed presentation say - Agweek