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1
HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, On June 30, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed
3that U.S. immigration law expressly authorizes the Department
4of Homeland Security (DHS) to grant "parole", permission to
5temporarily remain in the United States and apply for a work
6permit to certain people who are undocumented without
7Congressional approval for "urgent humanitarian reasons or
8significant public benefit" so long as the exercise of such
9discretion is "reasonable and reasonably explained" on a case
10by case basis per Biden v. Texas, 142 S. Ct. 2528 (2022); and
 
11    WHEREAS, The U.S. government has exercised its parole
12authority in a wide variety of ways for humanitarian reasons
13and significant public benefit; and
 
14    WHEREAS, A program known as Military Parole in Place
15already exists for spouses, parents, or children, who are
16undocumented, of active-duty or former active duty members of
17the U.S. Armed Forces and the Selected Reserve of the Ready
18Reserve; and
 
19    WHEREAS, Amidst Congressional inaction on immigration
20reform, President Biden has utilized parole more than any
21other U.S. president in history, extending the program to more
22than 1 million people who are undocumented over the past two

 

 

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1years; and
 
2    WHEREAS, The U.S. is experiencing an unprecedented labor
3shortage across multiple sectors of our economy that are vital
4to our national well-being; and
 
5    WHEREAS, In the State of Illinois, the fifth largest
6economy in the United States, critical industries, such as
7manufacturing, transportation, warehousing, agriculture,
8healthcare, childcare, senior/home care, hospitality,
9construction, and education, are experiencing a prolonged
10staffing shortage that is harming their growth and
11competitiveness; and
 
12    WHEREAS, According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as
13analyzed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Illinois has, on
14average, 76 available workers for every 100 jobs; and
 
15    WHEREAS, The Illinois Department of Employment Security
16(IDES) reports that the largest number of high-demand,
17high-wage job openings through 2030 are in occupations that
18require short-term or moderate-term on-the-job training,
19including over 56,000 annual openings in the restaurant
20sector, over 41,000 annual openings for laborers, assemblers,
21and maintenance workers, over 59,000 annual openings for
22cashiers and retail sales and customer service

 

 

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1representatives, and over 15,000 annual openings in home
2health and personal care aides; and
 
3    WHEREAS, The Illinois Farm Bureau has indicated that local
4worker shortages are among the top current challenges for
5Illinois farmers, suppliers, and processors, including
6locating qualified truck drivers to haul grain and sourcing
7enough hands to pick vegetables or manage livestock, and
8furthermore, that this shortage in the agricultural supply
9chains continues to not only undermine the financial health of
10farms in Illinois but, more importantly, threaten food
11security, and, ultimately, our national security; and
 
12    WHEREAS, The Illinois State Board of Education's (ISBE)
132023 Unfilled Positions Report shows that school districts in
14Illinois reported more unfilled positions in FY23 than they
15did in FY22, and there continues to be a high demand for
16paraprofessionals and teachers, particularly in the City of
17Chicago, the Northeast region, and the East Central region,
18and the demand for paraprofessionals, who often serve special
19education and bilingual students, outweighs the supply; and
 
20    WHEREAS, The Illinois Nursing Workforce Center reports the
21State is facing an estimated shortfall of nearly 15,000 nurses
22by 2025 and a deficit of 6,200 physicians by 2030, fueled in
23part by pandemic burnout and by providers leaving the

 

 

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1profession or retiring, as 52% of the almost 195,000 RNs in
2Illinois are over the age of 55 with 27% planning to retire in
3the next five years and less than 8,000 nurses graduating each
4year; and
 
5    WHEREAS, The Migration Policy Institute estimates that
6there are more than 12,000 Illinois residents with
7international healthcare degrees who are prohibited from
8providing care due to licensing or worker authorization; and
 
9    WHEREAS, The Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
10reports that many seniors in the Illinois Community Cares
11Program (CCP) are already going without the care they should
12receive due to a severe workforce shortage, and the number of
13authorized CCP hours not serviced has increased by 46%; much
14of the increased need for home care is associated with the
15increasing number of senior Illinoisans, a strong preference
16for in-home rather than nursing facility services, and a
17strong preference for culturally competent care; IDES projects
18that Illinois will need an additional 9,000 home care workers
19annually for each of the next ten years; and
 
20    WHEREAS, Despite the State's critical need for labor,
21nearly half a million Illinoisans who are undocumented are
22still unable to legally work; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, Nearly 30% of Illinoisans who are undocumented
2have been residing and contributing to the workforce in the
3U.S. for over 20 years; and
 
4    WHEREAS, The majority of residents in Illinois who are
5undocumented reside in mixed status families with U.S. citizen
6and lawful permanent resident family members; and
 
7    WHEREAS, Long-term immigrant workers in Illinois who are
8undocumented empower key sectors of the economy, including
9manufacturing, farming, food production, senior/home care,
10child care, healthcare, education, construction, hospitality,
11and warehousing, contributing to our State's prosperity and
12also contributing approximately $1.5 billion in taxes per
13year; and
 
14    WHEREAS, Granting work permits will provide a significant
15public benefit to Illinois' economy by expanding the formal
16workforce to include all who have the eligibility to work,
17while increasing taxes paid to the State; and
 
18    WHEREAS, In the education sector alone, Illinois school
19districts report a high number of unfilled teaching and
20paraprofessional positions; and
 
21    WHEREAS, Teachers and paraprofessionals are essential for

 

 

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1primary and secondary school students in our State,
2particularly for special education and bilingual students; and
 
3    WHEREAS, The existing worker shortage is so great that
4many school districts have been forced to contract workers
5directly from abroad, even though long-term immigrants are
6well-suited to fill these positions; and
 
7    WHEREAS, The exclusion from federal benefits leaves
8long-term immigrant workers who are undocumented and their
9families vulnerable and forces the State of Illinois to spend
10our tax dollars to provide critical health care and other
11benefits; and
 
12    WHEREAS, Granting work permits would allow workers to earn
13a fair wage and secure benefits, including health insurance;
14and
 
15    WHEREAS, Granting work permits would aid in the
16enforcement of existing labor laws, thereby reducing the
17exploitation of our lowest wage workers, the majority of whom
18are workers of color and immigrants; and
 
19    WHEREAS, Work permits would protect from deportation tens
20of thousands of students in Illinois who are undocumented and
21without the protection of Deferred Action for Childhood

 

 

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1Arrivals (DACA) and would ensure that youth who are
2undocumented get the education they need to support themselves
3and their families and contribute to the State and national
4economies; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Illinois provides limited benefits and resources
6for individuals who are undocumented, including limited
7healthcare coverage for low-income qualifying immigrants, much
8of which would be unnecessary if the undocumented had work
9permits and could secure such benefits through their
10employment; and
 
11    WHEREAS, Despite the protections Illinois has enacted to
12protect long-term immigrant workers who are undocumented, they
13continue to be at risk of deportation, family separation,
14exploitation at work, and exclusion from health care and other
15benefits due to their immigration status, all of which
16negatively affects Illinois' economy and public safety and the
17quality-of-life in our communities; and
 
18    WHEREAS, For all these reasons, work permits for long-term
19immigrant workers would be a significant public benefit to the
20State of Illinois; and
 
21    WHEREAS, Only the federal government can issue work
22permits to people who are undocumented under its parole

 

 

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1authority; therefore, be it
 
2    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
3HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE
4SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that we urge the President of the
5United States to authorize the DHS Secretary to establish a
6program to evaluate parole and work authorization on a
7case-by-case basis for long-term immigrant workers who are
8undocumented and residing in Illinois to address this State's
9critical need for labor and to secure the family life for tens
10of thousands of mixed status families in Illinois; and be it
11further
 
12    RESOLVED, That we urge the Governor to work with federal
13partners to urge, by all possible means, the establishment of
14such a parole and work authorization program for the long-term
15immigrant population who are undocumented and residing in
16Illinois; and be it further
 
17    RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
18delivered to the Office of the President of the United States
19and to all members of the Illinois Congressional Delegation.