Utah should take a hard pass on bringing in more cheap foreign labor. Now that long-standing bipartisan immigration laws are actually being enforced, lawmakers are being lobbied hard to reopen the spigot. Instead of feeding that dependence on foreign workers, we need policies that help put our own citizens to work.
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The announced this week from Sens. John Curtis, R-Utah, and Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., provides a state-based program to enable temporary visas for foreign workers, including workers who have been in the country illegally.
This is just another step toward amnesty. Furthermore, the plan creates institutional incentives that systematically favor importing workers over mobilizing or compensating the existing American workforce.
I categorically reject this approach. It prioritizes cheap labor over healthy wages and affordable housing. We can do a better job of matching people who need and seek work with available jobs. That’s the kind of legislation we should prioritize.
As Gen Z college students enter the labor market, entry-level jobs are harder than ever to find. Utah has nearly 250,000 college students, not including those in online degree programs. We have college graduates with student loans to pay who can’t find internships and first jobs. Yet federal lawmakers continue to incentivize cheap foreign labor across both blue-collar and white-collar industries.
Utah does not have a general labor shortage. Utah’s unemployment-population ratio rates have decreased, even when adjusting for an aging population. The number of Utahns who are actively employed is significantly lower since 2006. Among men, the unemployment population ratio has dropped by 6.4 percentage points between 2006 and 2024. Too many have simply left the workforce and are not even counted in current unemployment statistics.
We don’t need to let more people in. We need to let the markets adapt. That may mean higher wages, better training or automation improvements. The market has a mechanism for responding to labor demand. It’s innovation and wage growth.
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Curtis claims he meets with companies who must have this kind of labor. Who are these companies? What kind of jobs are available? What wages do they pay? Are any of these the same companies that are laying off American workers and sending their jobs overseas?
We already lawfully bring in more than 1 million immigrants annually. Shouldn’t we have a higher moral obligation to those who come here the right way? There are already visas for temporary agricultural workers. In fact, we have more than 90 different visas. To somehow suggest the current 90-plus visas aren’t enough is without merit.
We still have nearly 20 million people here illegally. Instead of bending over backward to offer a pathway to employment and potentially citizenship for those people, we should be looking for ways to get more Americans back into the workforce.
We need to make sure our college graduates can earn good wages, build careers and can afford to raise families in Utah. Let’s make sure our Utah economy can thrive based on the legal and lawful Americans who are already here.
The temptation to rescue industries long dependent on cheap foreign labor is one we must resist. Amnesty proposals, whatever form they take, prioritize all the wrong things.
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