Hilda Solis: Immigration reform delays slow job growth

• The immigration system is severely broken and hurting the economy in its current state.
• I appreciate the obligation to merge parochial interests with national policy needs.
• Immigrants helped build our country and continue to form businesses and create new inventions.

The debate over whether to enact immigration reform legislation is needlessly stuck.

The House is reluctant to take up a broad bill because some members are not convinced that immigration reform -- largely favored by voters -- can benefit politicians, regardless of party. Others adamantly oppose the proposed 13- to 15-year path to citizenship for those now in the country without documents.

In deciding to move slowly with immigration legislation, House leaders outlined their limited principles: secure borders, enforcement of immigration laws, and fixing the immigration system to strengthen the economy.

I agree. There is no dispute that the immigration system is severely broken and hurting the economy in its current state.

Missing from the list is the key component that will grow the economy: the proposed legalization and citizenship program. Various economic studies that show the benefits of immigration reform show that the key to the growth -- now and decades into the future -- is the legalized workforce that would come from citizenship.

I was a four-term House member before serving as labor secretary for President Obama, so I appreciate the obligation to merge parochial interests with national policy needs.

As members head home for the August recess and meet with their constituents, including business, church and community leaders, it is my hope they consider the reasons for comprehensive reform, including the economic benefits, and appreciate the progress that already has been made in the immigration debate.

Immigration is a rare issue that has brought together unlikely allies: labor and business, agricultural industries and farm workers, Democrats and Republicans in the Senate and House. They set aside their usual differences and cobbled together solid compromises, due to the great need to repair the immigration system.

Labor and business realized, for example, that neither would gain without the economic benefits that would be derived from immigration reform. The potential gains are huge.

By 2033, our economy would grow by $1.4 trillion if the Senate measure were enacted. A stronger, legalized workforce would mean more productivity, growth in jobs and higher wages for all U.S. workers. Entrepreneurs and innovators would be eligible for new temporary and permanent visas. The agriculture industry would have access to the labor force it needs and the housing market's recovery would be enhanced by more demand and higher prices.

At the same time, workers would be protected from abusive employers and receive fair wages and benefits, instead of working at the mercy of bad actor employers who pay under the table and depress wages and labor conditions. There would be additional safeguards in the recruitment of foreign workers.

Of importance to all taxpayers, the Social Security Trust Fund would be extended for two years and the federal budget deficit would be cut by about $897 billion through 2033 under the Senate plan.

From my viewpoint, I deeply appreciate the contributions of immigrants who helped build our country and who continue to form businesses and create new inventions.

Small businesses owned by immigrants had receipts totaling $776 billion and had 4.7 million employees in 2007. Of the companies on the Fortune 500 list, more than two of every five businesses were founded by immigrants or children of immigrants. Immigrants were nearly twice as likely as native-born Americans to start a business each month in 2012, according to the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity.

Clearly, economic considerations are not driving this debate. If they were, immigration reform would be on a path to enactment. Rather, it is the path to legalization and citizenship that has blocked this legislation. That is unfortunate.

There are some who want to speed up the legalization of the agriculture industry's work force. Also, there is growing support in the House for a limited citizenship path for youths who were brought to this country without documents at a young age and consider themselves American in every regard but lack citizenship status. Let's not forget that our country has been served by undocumented soldiers.

To keep others in the shadows and in a permanent underclass, would lessen the economic gains and our values as a nation of immigrants.

To stand in the way of immigration reform hurts the farmer in the Midwest, the small business owner and job creator in the Southeast, the construction contractor in the Southwest and the high technology innovators across the U.S. Why would we want to block their progress?

If growers and farm workers can find a compromise and if business and labor can agree on key provisions, then, surely, the House will find a way to move forward with immigration reforms that serve our economy, our workers and respect the contributions of immigrants.

Hilda Solis was secretary of labor under President Obama.

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