Coalition tries to ease immigration standards

Monday, Aug. 20, 2001 | 10:59 a.m.

A national coalition of business and immigration groups with members from Nevada has formed to lobby for easing immigration standards to help supply unskilled labor businesses say they need.

Nevada hotel and restaurant trade groups say they have a hard time in the current economy getting workers such as maids, dishwashers and short-order cooks.

Immigration reform will be an issue addressed when the 107th Congress convenes next month. The issue also will be discussed by President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox when they meet next month.

The coalition recommends adjusting the status of the millions of undocumented immigrant workers who live in the United States, paying taxes and raising families. In Nevada, estimates of the undocumented population range from 60,000 to 125,000.

John Kukalica, chairman of the board of the Nevada Restaurant Association, said there is a shortage of unskilled labor in Las Vegas that would be even more serious if undocumented immigrants were deported.

"Everyone I know is scrambling to find help," Kukalica said.

His group represents 700 of the state's 5,000 restaurants, including those at hotel-casinos such as Caesars Palace, Paris Las Vegas and Bellagio.

Hotels and casinos employ 246,200 people statewide and restaurants employ 70,000, said Jim Schabi, of the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.

"It's hard to find people to wash dishes and mop floors," Kukalica said. "People opposed to immigration reform say we're stealing jobs from Americans, but nationals here in Las Vegas aren't applying for these jobs."

Called the "Essential Worker Immigration Coalition," the national group includes the American Hotel & Lodging Association and the National Restaurant Association, which represent some of Nevada's biggest employers.

The coalition also includes the League of United Latin American Citizens, the nation's oldest Hispanic organization, the National Immigration Forum, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the American Health Care Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

These are groups that have not worked together in the past, but have found common ground on the issue of immigration reform.

"I never dreamed I'd be sitting at the same table with everybody from the roofing industry to the Latino organizations," Kukalica said.

Aside from adjusting the status of undocumented workers, the group wants to change immigration law affecting those who come to the United States for temporary work and then return to their home countries.

Currently, such workers can receive temporary visas when employers can prove that their need is seasonal or for a short period -- such as farm workers.

Employers and immigrants find applying for the visas complicated and time consuming. There is also a cap on the number of the visas granted -- 66,000 nationwide.

Now, the visas are restricted to one employer. Among the changes the coalition suggests is to have the visas extend to multiple employers.

"We are beginning to see the importance of immigration reform for our industry," said Bruce Bommarito, chairman of the board for the Nevada Hotel and Lodging Association, a local arm of the American Hotel and Lodging Association, a coalition member. The association Bommarito chairs represents 85,000 of Nevada's 140,000 hotel rooms.

Bommarito said immigration will be discussed at his association's board meeting in September.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that by 2008 there will be 160.7 million jobs nationwide, but only 154.5 million workers -- a shortage of more than 6 million.

John Gay, one of the coalition's founding members, said from his Washington office that the problem of finding unskilled workers exists even with the slowdown in the economy. He also said national programs such as welfare-to-work, while successful, do not solve the labor problem.

Peter Ashman, chairman of the Nevada chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said Las Vegas will be watched by the coalition members as the immigration issue is addressed by Congress and President Bush in the coming months.