Letter: Tri-Cities Immigrant Coalition forum
On Jan. 23 the Tri-Cities Immigrant Coalition sponsored a great forum on the economic impact of immigration policy on our local economy. The five panelists represented farming, the tech sector, higher education and local service and retail businesses.
I learned that area farmers, who have experienced shortages of workers for several seasons, are now panicked about a lack of workers for upcoming harvests. Hanford businesses are very dependent upon highly skilled foreign workers to fill technical positions that are vacant.
Our area is experiencing the lowest unemployment rate in years and birth rates are dropping at a time when Baby Boomers are retiring. WSU and CBC have large numbers of foreign students who no longer feel welcome due to anti-immigrant sentiment from our national leadership.
Immigrants without documentation are not spending on cars or new mortgages as they fear for their future, resulting in reduced tax revenues and small businesses suffering.
Go to the Tri-Cities Immigrant Coalition Facebook page to watch the forum and to learn how you can be part of change.
Mike Stipe, Richland
This story was originally published January 24, 2018 at 6:04 PM with the headline "Letter: Tri-Cities Immigrant Coalition forum."