GOP, business at odds on migrant reform

Not sure why all these stories on how anti-immigration reform have hurt local businesses come out on Sundays. Today's article demonstrates a surprising rift between the business community and the Arizona Republican Party. Stringent immigration reform in Arizona only would hurt business since that same workforce will simply go into neighboring states for work. This demonstrates how much this immigrant workforce is needed to keep the local economy going.

GOP, business at odds on migrant reform
Mary Jo Pitzl
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 11, 2007
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0311immigration-GOP0311.html

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"Last week, 32 chambers of commerce sent a letter to state lawmakers and Gov. Janet Napolitano imploring them to hold off on state actions and work for "comprehensive immigration reform" in Congress this year."
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32 chambers of commerce is quite a bit for Arizona. I would imagine it is every major metropolitan in the state.

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"But in their letter, the business leaders say that an Arizona-only immigration crackdown would hurt the state's competitiveness and make it less attractive for prospective employers.
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So workers would go elsewhere, so then there IS a competition for this workforce and a desire to attract it to Arizona.

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"And although the business community may want to wait for Congress' plan, Arizonans don't, Boone argued. He pointed to the lopsided success of three ballot measures last fall that ratcheted up the pressure on illegal immigrants.

But chamber officials say that such policies would dampen Arizona's business climate and create a regulatory mishmash. Among those sending the letter were the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the East Valley Chambers of Commerce Alliance and the Southern Arizona Chamber of Commerce Alliance.

"Our ability to bring new companies and jobs into this state will be compromised if the Legislature implements onerous and discriminatory regulations that create a negative perception of Arizona as a place to operate a business," the chamber officials wrote."
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This goes back to my past posts demonstrating how necessary this population is to the local economy. This isn't even a local issue, but a STATEWIDE issue. Many Arizonans don't realize how much they benefit from this population coming to work here. It attracts business and keeps their goods at a low cost of living. Mostly because this population is paid very poorly.