Get Involved
How Businesses Can Participate
Keeping talented, willing, and able asylum seekers out of the workforce for 180 days or more after they apply for asylum causes economic harm when employers nationwide are facing acute labor shortages. The nation’s workforce challenges prevent U.S. businesses from holding steady, let alone being able to grow.
Business leaders around the country know it’s time to let asylum seekers work. Passing the Asylum Seeker Work Authorization Act would propel asylum seekers into the U.S. labor force at least 5 months faster than under the current law.
There are many ways that business leaders across the country can get involved:
Share your perspective on social media, in op-eds, at your trade or professional associations, or in your community about how labor shortages are impacting your business, and the need for Congress to act to let asylum seekers work. If you employ asylum seekers already, share about their importance to your business.
Meet with or write to your representatives in Congress. Use this letter template to write to your member urging them to co-sponsor and support the ASWAA, and ask for a meeting.
Add your name to a business-led sign-on letter to Congress and ask other business leaders you know to do the same. Learn more and sign the letter here.
Contact Sarah Sheffer at ssheffer@refugeesinternational.org if you’d like to get involved!
Business Leaders Speak Out
“Authorizing asylum seekers to work sooner is key to filling gaps in worker shortages that businesses across Maine have been experiencing for decades – and more acutely since the pandemic,” said Dana Connors, former President, Maine State Chamber of Commerce. “Holding back people who are willing, able and eager to contribute to our economy and our communities is holding back our state.”
“Retailers have a vested interest in ensuring the efficiency and functionality of our nation’s legal immigration system, particularly as they contend with the ongoing nationwide worker shortage,” said Ed Egee, VP, Government Relations and Workforce Development, National Retail Federation. “Accordingly, National Retail Federation is proud to support efforts to allow asylum seekers to fill much-needed positions while they await adjudication of their claims.”
“The workplace looks very different than it did pre-pandemic and it’s putting an extra strain on business owners in service-related industries,” said Misty Chally, executive director of the Critical Labor Coalition. “Restaurants, hotels and convenience stores are just a few of the industries struggling to fill positions which require employees to work in person. Lowering waiting periods for asylum seekers to receive work permits will help fill those positions, lower the demand for state and federal assistance and strengthen our economy. Employers need workers and asylum seekers want to work – this shouldn’t be a political issue.”
"In my 2022 doctoral research, the evidence was clear, because of low birthrates and high retirement rates, the only area of growth in the labor force in the United States over at least the next ten years will be through immigration,” said Dr. Thomas Milligan, Steering Committee Member, Ohio Business for Immigration Solutions and Owner, Bedrock Properties, Inc. “Industries such as the building industry would be crippled by mass deportations. Sensible employment-based immigration policies that include asylum seekers are a must for our country’s continued growth and prosperity."
