Florida Wise to Think Before Acting On Immigration Reform

by Joe Kefauver

Alabama as a Case Study
The immigration reform issue continues to resurface in political dialogue, with some lawmakers advocating hardline enforcement tactics such as those implemented in states like Arizona and Alabama. State leaders, who rejected such ill-advised approaches last session, need only look to our western neighbor to see how wise their decision was.

Alabama’s reputation and economy have been hurt by a series of heavy-handed enforcement incidents involving foreign executives from two of the state’s largest employers, Honda and Mercedes. Both men were guilty of not carrying the full documentation required by the ‘get-tough’ law, with one briefly jailed. Like was the case in Arizona, where the first overzealous immigration crackdown policy was enacted, the situation has led some groups to reconsider Alabama as a destination for business and travel.

Recognizing the potential economic damage and as well as political backlash, Alabama’s Governor Robert Bentley and the Republican leadership in both the House and the Senate, who championed the law last session, have pledged to rework the law in the 2012 session beginning Feb. 7. But damage has already been done to a state that has worked long and hard to overcome a difficult past and successfully portray itself as friendly to foreign businesses and tourists.

Florida, which continues to face double-digit unemployment and a soft economy, can ill afford a similar self-inflicted wound.

Florida vs. Alabama
Florida dwarfs Alabama in terms of foreign business interests within the state as well as tourism. Florida enjoyed 82.3 million visitors in 2010, 11.1 million of which came from foreign countries. As the “Gateway to the Americas,” the state is a leader in international trade with $103 billion worth of merchandise flowing through our airports and seaports each year. Florida also hosts some 300 regional headquarters of companies from all over the world and maintains 20 Foreign Trade Zones (FTZ), the second largest network in the country.

Visitors to the state of Florida who travel here to enjoy our beaches, theme parks or attend a business function, positively impact the Florida economy to the tune of $57 billion.  An aggressive enforcement-focused immigration law could produce an immediate chilling effect on trade, tourism and business throughout the state. Florida should continue to proceed with caution on this issue and not allow it to detract from more important issues at hand, such as creating new jobs and strengthening our state’s economy.

Meanwhile, since Alabama put its new law in place overall unemployment has remained essentially unchanged, however, some businesses report growing labor shortages that could reach a crisis point in the spring for the agriculture sector.  

Federal Action Is Needed
The immigration system is in need of repair. But a sensible and balanced approach is needed to address this complex issue, not just “send them back” policies that put the burden of enforcement on the backs of business owners. Enforcement-only focused immigration reform proposals fail to recognize the far-reaching impacts this complicated issue has.  Hardball, narrow policies would serve only to hurt our tourism, trade and economy.

Cash-strapped state governments are ill equipped to tackle immigration. Lacking the authority to establish, and by extension regulate, agreements with foreign countries, states can only narrowly address enforcement. States that have attempted to aggressively regulate enforcement also have found themselves in costly and prolonged legal battles.  This makes it even more difficult for business owners to decipher what the additional costs of compliance might be for proposed new measures.

The result is widespread confusion on behalf of both visitors and employers.  At a time when employers should be focused on growing their companies and hiring, they instead face a number of uncertainties both in the market and in complying with new regulations ranging from healthcare to tax policy.  There couldn’t be a worse time for state governments to pile on more uncertainty.  

Further complicating the dialogue, immigration reform, like many other issues, is mired in the partisan political bickering of our times, with very little middle ground between the proponents of amnesty on the left and ‘lock down the borders and send them all back’ on the right.

The tough Arizona law that is the model for Alabama will soon be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, which should better define the roles of federal and state government in this complicated issue. Immigration reform is ultimately best addressed at the federal level and until a common sense national policy that balances enforcement with other considerations is developed, Florida lawmakers will be best served by working with their federal counterparts to craft workable policy.  

Joe Kefauver is the Executive Director of ImmigrationWorks Florida.