Business, community, and faith leaders in New Mexico have come together to create a coalition. It calls on the US government to offer the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants believed to be living in the US the chance to get on a path to citizenship.
The coalition, an initiative of the national organization known as the New American Economy, consists of business leaders and Mayors from both the Democratic and the Republican Party. It wants to convince lawmakers to allow undocumented immigrants who have no criminal record to become legal residents. The coalition also wants to see the border between the US and Mexico become more secure. Immigration attorney, Allegra Love is also the founder of the local non-profit organization, The Santa Fe Dreamers Project, which was created to help young undocumented immigrants. Love says that immigration reform is an economic, as well as a political imperative. It would enable immigrants to work for the American Dream and to enter the workforce.
The New Mexico coalition is also asking lawmakers to acknowledge the benefits to the economy brought to the state by undocumented immigrants. The Santa Fe Area Home Builders Association executive director, Kim Shanahan, says that the state is heavily reliant on immigrant labor and that businesses need Congress to provide them with the tools they need to stay ahead in the modern economy.
Immigrants make up ten percent of the population in New Mexico, and in 2014, contributed taxes of more than $1 billion.