The Nebraska Chamber Foundation — the “research arm” of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce — has released the results of a study they commissioned to find solutions to the state’s labor shortage problem.
To the surprise of no one, the report urges the state to become the “most welcoming place in America” for immigrants, legal and otherwise.
The report (actually three reports, all in agreement on the one, all-important matter) was put together by an outfit from North Carolina called Economic Leadership, which bills itself as a “nonpartisan, data-based” organization. Yet, if Nebraska had wanted “nonpartisanship,” it might well have looked elsewhere, because Economic Leadership is a Johnny-one-note where immigrants are concerned: they always want more.
Before the Nebraska contract, an Economic Leadership spokesman made similar recommendations to the Chamber of Fargo, North Dakota, on July 25, 2022, telling that group, “We need immigration reform, and we need it bad.” Not surprisingly, they came to the identical conclusion regarding Nebraska, reporting that Nebraskans they talked to consider the federal immigration system “broken.” The report continues:
[Nebraskans] understood that there’s a stigma around illegal immigration but stressed that legal paths must be improved. They felt that America needs to “close the back door” but “open the front door” for a greater volume of legal immigration.
Nebraska Chamber officials are largely all in on Economic Leadership’s recommendations but seem hesitant to support immediately some of the more wokeish proposals, such as amnesty. The Chamber president said, “The chamber’s position on more politically charged points, such as creating legal paths for undocumented immigrants in the United States, would wait to be clarified as time goes on and as specific legislation is proposed in Congress.”
They are ready, however, to declare support for increasing H-1B and other special visa quotas and for legalizing all “DREAMERs,” illegals brought to the US while underage and protected currently by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
(Incidentally, the Nebraska state legislature seems ambivalent toward DACA. Earlier this year, Nebraska lawmakers at one point voted overwhelmingly, 36-8, to allow DACA recipients to become police officers. That changed abruptly when US Rep. Mike Flood (R-NE) asked whether DACA recipients — who are, by definition, still illegal — would be considered “credible witnesses” in court. Within two weeks, support in the legislature collapsed so that the final vote went to 25-11 against.)
We’re not told how much the Chamber paid Economic Leadership for their advice, but they could have saved it all by adopting the lib party line for free.
For more, see the Nebraska Examiner.