Joint Letter Cites Deep Ties and Economic Contributions, Especially to the Construction Industry
This Week DHS Revoked Status For Nicaraguans, Punts on 57,000 Hondurans
11/23/17 Decision Deadline For 50,000 Haitians in 15 Days
Yesterday, business leaders from National Association of Homebuilders, Associated General Contractors, Leading Builders of America, and Associated Builders and Contractors sent a letter to Congressional leadership urging Congress to take legislative action to ensure TPS holders can permanently remain in America. The letter cites the deep roots of TPS holders, the economic contributions of these essential workers, and their importance to the construction industry, especially at a time when such workers are vital to reconstruction efforts in areas recovering from hurricane damage.
The letter in its entirety follows below:
November 7, 2017
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
S-230, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20510Minority Leader Chuck Schumer
S-221, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20510Speaker Paul Ryan
H-232, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20510Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi
H-204, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20510Dear Speaker Ryan, Minority Leader Pelosi, Majority Leader McConnell, and Minority Leader Schumer:
As national construction trade associations, we write to express our concerns regarding the upcoming decisions related to the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designations for El Salvador, Haiti, and Honduras.
Given the recent destruction by hurricanes in the south and the devastating fires in California, our businesses and local economies will now, more than ever, need these legally authorized workers from these countries, and be adversely impacted by a failure to extend their status.
A series of deadlines, beginning early November 2017, will shape the lives of over 300,000 people from these countries who currently have TPS. Aside from the serious humanitarian, global political, and national security consequences; the U.S. impact of terminating TPS for these large populations could profoundly and negatively impact our construction industry (among other industries), and severely slow the pace of recovery in our communities. Even before the hurricanes hit, large numbers of contractors in the south and across the nation were reporting difficulty finding needed workers. Ending TPS for these three countries would cause the near-term loss of work authorization for an estimated 50,000 construction workers nationwide who are vital to the reconstruction efforts across our country. These losses would lead to construction delays in large and small projects that rely on those workers, and the impact would ripple through the economies of the communities waiting for those projects to be completed.
It is important to note that these TPS workers are not new to their jobs; over half of Salvadoran and Honduran TPS holders and roughly 16 percent of Haitians with TPS have lived in the United States for more than 20 years. They are stable, productive and skilled employees who also supervise and manage operations, performing essential work in construction and other critical industries.
Our country has also come to depend on the more than 300,000 TPS holders who live in the United States, more than 84 percent of whom participate in the labor force. An estimated one-third of TPS households nationwide have mortgages, and thus, terminations in localities where TPS holders reside in large numbers risks destabilizing local housing markets. If these TPS designations were allowed to expire, hundreds of thousands of individuals would lose their employment authorization on a single day, with serious consequences for businesses around the country and entire industries – and leading to a reduction in GDP of billions of dollars.
Congress has the authority to prevent the uncertainty and economic damage that would result from negative decisions on TPS. Together we call on Congress to take legislative action to ensure that TPS holders can remain and continue to work legally in this country.
Respectfully,
National Association of Homebuilders
Associated General Contractors
Leading Builders of America
Associated Builders and Contractors
