West Virginia's labor-force participation rate—the share of the 16-and-older population either working or looking for work—was 55.2% in March, the second-lowest in the country.
Some states including Maine, Indiana and Utah, have sought immigrants to shore up their workforces.
West Virginia represents one extreme in its labor needs, it represents another in its resistance to immigration.
Republican Gov. Jim Justice has signed legislation banning “sanctuary cities” in West Virginia and deployed that state’s own National Guard troops to the Mexican border in Texas.
State lawmakers have introduced bills that would: require businesses to conduct additional screening for unauthorized workers; punish companies for transporting migrants who are deportable under U.S. law; create a program to enable state authorities to remove even some immigrants with legal status to work; and appropriate money for Texas to install more razor wire along the Rio Grande.
Local business groups representing manufacturers, bankers, real-estate agents, builders and auto dealers are lobbying against the proposed worker-screening legislation, which they say would deter needed workers and create burdensome and duplicative requirements.
.Here are the top political news stories for today.
@MinorityBrandonForward2yrs2Y
Just shows how it's bad to have one party control for either side. Allows the extremes to govern unchecked rather than force a compromise to the middle. And the middle is where the right answers usually are found.
Shame that immigration has become so political. Makes compromise nearly impossible. But more necessary than ever.
So the Republican governor, and legislature, of West Virginia, would rather see its oldest, and most vulnerable, citizens die waiting for healthcare than to employ immigrants who are in the U. S. legally?
Why?
It is a fact of life that old people die. We have to address how many of our health care dollars are spent trying to stretch out the dying process. I do not think it is kind to keep someone in this kind of existence. Before you start pointing fingers at me, I am very close to 80 yrs. old.
It's not death we need to worry about. It's living with the indignities of age. Older people can live with dignity when they have proper care. When my parents reached their 90's, they were fortunate to have home care providers from the Caribbean islands who were incredibly lovely: they treated my parents with respect and sympathy.
West Virginia can rant about illegal immigrants all day long, but the plain fact is that W. Va. consumes more federal tax dollars than it produces. Liberal blue states underwrite their xenophobic politics. West Virginians are takers, Blue States are the makers.
@Freedom762yrs2Y
Incentivise families and life-long marriages, then
@YouthfulBearLibertarian2yrs2Y
It’s always “I can’t find help” and never “I offered $25/hour and I still can’t find help”.
It's like legal immigration doesn't even exist anymore. When the progressive left have a meeting of the minds on illegal immigration, we are blasted with a constant barrage of justification that can be condensed to the ends justify the means.
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
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