Bill Text: IL HJR0069 | 2023-2024 | 103rd General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Urges the President of the United States to authorize the DHS Secretary to establish a program to evaluate parole and work authorization on a case-by-case basis for long-term immigrant workers who are undocumented and residing in Illinois to address this State's critical need for labor and to secure the family life for tens of thousands of mixed status families in Illinois. Urges the Governor to work with federal partners to urge, by all possible means, the establishment of such a parole and work authorization program for the long-term immigrant population who are undocumented and residing in Illinois.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-04-30 - Referred to Rules Committee [HJR0069 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2023-HJR0069-Introduced.html

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

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

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representatives, and over 15,000 annual openings in home
health and personal care aides; and
WHEREAS, The Illinois Farm Bureau has indicated that local
worker shortages are among the top current challenges for
Illinois farmers, suppliers, and processors, including
locating qualified truck drivers to haul grain and sourcing
enough hands to pick vegetables or manage livestock, and
furthermore, that this shortage in the agricultural supply
chains continues to not only undermine the financial health of
farms in Illinois but, more importantly, threaten food
security, and, ultimately, our national security; and
WHEREAS, The Illinois State Board of Education's (ISBE)
2023 Unfilled Positions Report shows that school districts in
Illinois reported more unfilled positions in FY23 than they
did in FY22, and there continues to be a high demand for
paraprofessionals and teachers, particularly in the City of
Chicago, the Northeast region, and the East Central region,
and the demand for paraprofessionals, who often serve special
education and bilingual students, outweighs the supply; and
WHEREAS, The Illinois Nursing Workforce Center reports the
State is facing an estimated shortfall of nearly 15,000 nurses
by 2025 and a deficit of 6,200 physicians by 2030, fueled in
part by pandemic burnout and by providers leaving the

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

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

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

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

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authority; therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE
SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that we urge the President of the
United States to authorize the DHS Secretary to establish a
program to evaluate parole and work authorization on a
case-by-case basis for long-term immigrant workers who are
undocumented and residing in Illinois to address this State's
critical need for labor and to secure the family life for tens
of thousands of mixed status families in Illinois; and be it
further
RESOLVED, That we urge the Governor to work with federal
partners to urge, by all possible means, the establishment of
such a parole and work authorization program for the long-term
immigrant population who are undocumented and residing in
Illinois; and be it further