I am a plumber and small business owner.  For that reason, I have been acutely aware of our labor shortage for years. It has negatively affected my ability to grow my business and prosper. I am part of the immigrant community and have both witnessed and experienced the difficulties and unnecessary suffering inflicted on people, for no other reason than ignorance, and what everyone refers to as a “broken immigration system.”

Since I started the Truth and Immigration Project a few years ago, both the labor shortage, the situation at the border, and the attack on immigrants have intensified. But instead of coming closer to a solution to these problems, people have chosen political sides, and dug into the rhetoric of their favorite TV news channel.

A few years ago, local university students received credits in their economics class for helping to research the basic points of this website. At that time, it seemed almost necessary to prove that the United States had a labor shortage, and immigrants were not taking jobs away from native born citizens. Today that isn’t even questionable, because everywhere you go in the United States there are “Help Wanted” signs. Businesses like myself have practically given up finding competent people, and many  businesses have closed, or partially closed, because they are shorthanded.

 So, despite that at 66, and working more hours to pay my bills, I find it necessary to put the time in to try to point out the reality of our immigration system, and how it fails our labor needs.