Mission
The strength of New Jersey’s economy rests on the talent, enterprise, and hard work of its people, many of whom are immigrants. New Jersey’s singular accomplishments in science, engineering, manufacturing, and the arts owe much to the contributions of immigrants. The New Jersey Business Immigration Coalition (NJBIC) brings together business, higher education, and economic development leaders who recognize that immigrants strengthen New Jersey’s economy and communities and who wish to create conditions to attract, retain and integrate immigrants into our labor force and communities.
Platform
NJBIC promotes sensible immigration reform that supports economic growth, provides New Jersey companies with both the high-skilled and low-skilled talent they need, and allows the integration of immigrants into our economy as consumers, workers, entrepreneurs and citizens. NJBIC believes the following specific principles should guide immigration reform efforts:
- Manage borders effectively and humanely, address the problem of visa overstays, and develop a simple and secure system for employers to verify employment eligibility.
- Increase opportunities for immigrants to enter the United States workforce — and for talented international students to stay in the United States to work — so that we can attract and keep the best, the brightest and the hardest-working, who will strengthen our economy.
- Establish a flexible and timely system to control future flows of immigrants so that admission numbers expand or contract based on the needs of the economy and the supply of domestic workers.
- Ensure that workforce development and adult education programs help immigrants achieve their full potential.
- Establish a path to legal status for the undocumented currently living in the United States, including the more than 50,000 DREAMers living in New Jersey, with requirements such as registering with the federal government, learning English, paying taxes and following all laws.
- Ensure that all New Jersey residents are counted in the decennial census in conformance with the constitutional requirement of a complete and accurate count.