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Reps. Schneider and Velázquez Highlight Harm to Small Businesses from Trump Immigration Orders

June 30, 2017

Letter urges President Trump to withdraw immigration and homeland security policies hurting our economy

Today, U.S. Representative Brad Schneider (IL-10) and House Small Business Committee Ranking Member Nydia Velázquez (NY-07) sent a letter highlighting the damage to small businesses caused by President Trump's immigration and homeland security executive orders, and urging him to reverse these policies.

The letter, signed by a total of 22 Members of Congress, argues the Administration's disruptive immigration policies have sown confusion and uncertainty among the small business community, including in the medical, transportation, manufacturing, technology, restaurant, tourism, and hospitality industries.

The letter, which was sent during Immigrant Heritage Month, also notes the many contributions of immigrant entrepreneurs – more than 18 percent of all small business owners are immigrants – and expresses concern that small businesses will suffer from the expected decrease in the numbers of foreign visitors to the United States as a result of these policies.

"President Trump's extreme immigration and homeland security executive orders not only run contrary to our values, but are also bad for our nation's small businesses and detrimental to economic growth," said Schneider. "These arbitrary restrictions on immigrants and refugees create destabilizing uncertainty for our small businesses and make it less likely future immigrant entrepreneurs will create jobs here in the United States. Today's letter sends a strong message that we object to these policies on both moral and economic grounds."

"Entrepreneurship and immigration have always been the twin bedrocks of our nation's prosperity," said Velázquez. "Not only are the Trump Administration's immigration and refugee policies an affront to our national values, but they also come with significant economic cost. We must fight them at every turn."

In addition to Reps. Schneider and Velázquez, today's letter was signed by Reps. Alma Adams (NC-12), André Carson (IN-07), David Cicilline (RI-01), Yvette Clarke (NY-09), Luis Correa (CA-46), Adriano Espaillat (NY-13), Dwight Evans (PA-02), Luis Gutiérrez (IL-04), Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Al Lawson (FL-05), James McGovern (MA-02), Donald Payne (NJ-10), Mark Pocan (WI-02), Jared Polis (CO-02), Jamie Raskin (MD-08), José Serrano (NY-15), Thomas Suozzi (NY-03), Dina Titus (NV-01), Juan Vargas (CA-51), and John Yarmuth (KY-03).

The full letter is available here.