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The Christmas season is a time for excitement, celebration and time with loved ones. But this year, it’s also a source of stress for families who are worried about whether they can afford to prepare their usual Christmas meal.
In Alaska, we are no strangers to exorbitant prices. Our distance from the Lower 48 states already inflates common goods and makes our everyday cost of living more expensive. However, ongoing labor shortages and supply chain issues across America have put more strain than ever on our families and local businesses.
Unfortunately, inflated prices for agriculture and manufactured goods seem to be the new normal for Alaskan families. This year alone, costs in Anchorage have increased by more than 12%. And unless something changes, prices will continue to climb.
Many of these economic challenges our country is facing today are a result of a shortage of skilled workers. Across the United States, there are more than 5 million job openings than there are workers to fill those positions.
Our country desperately needs more workers. Yet, instead of securing the existing workforce in America, the United States is poised to potentially remove a large number of essential employees from our nation’s workforce.
This fall, a lower court ruled that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was created illegally more than 10 years ago. This decision leaves more than 600,000 DACA recipients and countless other Dreamers at risk of being removed from our economy. Ending DACA would equate to 1,000 Dreamers losing their jobs each day for the next two years -- an approximate economic loss of $1 billion each month.
But our economy doesn’t have to lose the contributions of these individuals in our communities.
Congress could prevent these losses by passing legislation that supports the future of America’s workforce. Thankfully, two bills exist in Congress that could address these challenges: the Farm Workforce Modernization Act and the Dream Act.
Paired together, these two bills would strengthen our nation’s economy by providing a path to citizenship for Dreamers and establishing a legal and reliable workforce for farmers and ranchers. Creating clear avenues for legal immigration would prevent us from losing existing employees and help us gain workers to fill in the gaps in our current workforce.
Americans are deeply concerned about the economic challenges facing our country and want to see Congress act this year. Nearly four in five Americans, and an even higher share of evangelical Christians, want Democrats and Republicans to work together on immigration reforms that reduce food prices by providing a reliable workforce for American farmers.
As an evangelical pastor in Alaska, ongoing labor shortages concern me both for the vulnerable in our immediate community impacted by rising costs and stagnant wages as well as the hardworking individuals across America left in limbo from a broken immigration system.
Alaskans quite literally cannot afford for Congress to continue to delay in providing solutions. Alaska’s food prices are increasing at an alarming rate and as a result, our communities are suffering and our neighbors are going hungry.
It is time for Congress to act this year and move forward common-sense immigration solutions so that all boats can rise with the tide in the new year.
Todd Michero is the lead pastor of Community Covenant Church in Eagle River.
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