Have changes in immigration laws affected KY businesses? Here’s what some say
Some members of the Kentucky business community said increased federal government scrutiny, including immigration enforcement, has meant more time spent dealing with regulators and less time on business.
Moreover, the federal government has hit pause on all refugee resettlement programs, which brought 4,500 legal refugees to the state last year. Without new immigrants coming into Kentucky communities, employers may have smaller pools of potential employees, some business leaders said Friday.
“It’s been an overwhelming success,” said Lisa DeJaco Crutcher, CEO of Catholic Charities of Louisville, of Kentucky’s resettlement programs.
Crutcher and others spoke Friday at a Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Federal Issues Summit at the Griffin Gate Marriott in Lexington on a panel about immigration policy changes and how it affects businesses.
Refugees are vetted and brought to the United States by the government and are traditionally on a path to citizenship. However, that program under President Donald Trump has been halted. Also, the legal status of many immigrants has now been changed, halted or changed.
On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Trump administration could revoke the legal status of 500,000 immigrants who came to the country from countries such as Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela. It’s not clear how many people in Kentucky could be deported under the new rules.
“We haven’t received any new refugees since Jan. 20,” Crutcher said.
Ninety-two refugees — many of whom were waiting to be reunited with family in Kentucky— had plane tickets to come to Kentucky that were canceled.
In addition, the Trump administration has also recommended that resettlement agencies that received federal funding to help refugees settle in the United States be defunded.
Crutcher said those agencies have funding until 2026. But after that, agencies that serve the thousands of refugees in Kentucky will no longer have funds to connect those refugees to jobs, education and English classes.
The United States and Kentucky have participated in the refugee programs because studies have shown it is a boon to cities and states that take refugees, she said.
“Tax revenues generated by legal refugees just grows and grows over years,” Crutcher said.
Immigrants are seven times more likely than native-born citizens to start businesses, for example.
Puma Veer, president of V-Soft Consulting Group, which recruits international employees for companies that need high-skilled employees that can’t be filled with U.S. citizens, said his company has had to spend more time documenting and processing applications for H2-B visas, or visas for highly-skilled and non-agricultural employees, since January.
But many potential employees are also worried about coming to the United States, Veer said.
“The talent pool that we are trying to recruit are fearful of what to expect,” Veer said.
Chelsea Granville Reed, a lawyer at Dentons, a law firm, said she has seen her work load increase about 20-to-30% since January. Many of the companies she represents have had questions about Immigration, Customs and Enforcement actions and how to respond to those ICE demands and questions.
But that’s not the only reason why Reed’s workload has increased.
Many of her clients have also seen a jump in federal investigations of companies, including civil investigative demands —a civil action federal officials can use to investigate companies. Some of those investigations involve coronavirus-related the Payroll Protection Program, which gave businesses forgivable loans during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
There’s still many unknowns about how immigration and other federal policies will play out given the number of lawsuits, many business leaders said Friday.
Those unknowns mean more time spent by businesses trying to navigate and comply with federal laws — including immigration laws.
“There is no greater business interruption than having to do deal with federal enforcement,” Reed said. “ It is a major, major interruption.”
