(UNITED STATES) A coalition of more than 1,700 employers is pressing Congress and President Trump to pass bipartisan immigration legislation in 2025, arguing that securing the border and creating legal pathways for long-term immigrant workers are both needed to stabilize the U.S. labor market and ease pressure on prices. The American Business Immigration Coalition, known as the American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC), has intensified its push behind the Dignity Act and the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, positioning business leaders in agriculture, construction, hospitality, healthcare and manufacturing at the forefront of a debate that has stalled in Washington for years.
On July 18, 2025, ABIC Action released a letter signed by more than 200 employers and small businesses addressed to President Trump and Congress, calling for “commonsense immigration solutions to Secure America’s Workforce,” and endorsing the bipartisan Dignity Act alongside the Farm Workforce Modernization Act. Rebecca Shi, CEO of ABIC Action, said:
“The Dignity Act mirrors what President Trump has said multiple times about work permits for long-term, law-abiding immigrants. This bill offers a real solution backing the President’s vision, and the American people — 76 percent in recent polls — are on board. Let’s get it done.”
The letter said “restaurant owners, farmers, construction companies and healthcare providers” are united in support of work permits and legal status for essential immigrant workers, a message intended to signal cross-industry agreement after years of uneven hiring and persistent vacancies.
ABIC’s organizing is now moving to Capitol Hill. From October 21–23, 2025, the coalition will convene a “Secure America’s Workforce” summit in Washington, D.C., bringing business leaders, advocates and coalition partners to meet lawmakers and press for bipartisan solutions. The group says the agenda will center on addressing a 1.7 million worker shortage and on “practical paths” for long-term immigrant workers to remain in the United States and contribute to the economy. The October effort is designed to amplify voices from factory floors, farm fields and hospital wards that, ABIC argues, are already feeling the strain of an aging workforce and years of tight labor supply.
Business owners are supplying pointed warnings about the costs of inaction. Marc Schulman, owner of Eli’s Cheesecake in Chicago, said immigrant and refugee workers have kept his business alive through volatile labor markets and stressed that mass deportations could
“gut their industries and drive further inflation for consumers.”
The inflation risk also looms large in ABIC’s economic case. Shi, ABIC’s executive director, has argued that stripping out undocumented immigrant labor would “slash the gross domestic product by 4.2%,” a figure the coalition is using to underscore the stakes for families and employers. ABIC points to farm fields left unpicked, delayed construction schedules and understaffed rural hospitals as concrete consequences if existing workers are removed and no legal channels are opened.
The coalition’s legislative centerpiece is the Dignity Act of 2025, authored by Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL) and Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) and backed by 20 bipartisan cosponsors. The bill blends enforcement and legalization measures in a package ABIC argues can satisfy voters who want both stronger border control and a functioning legal pipeline for workers already in the country. Its border provisions would fund infrastructure, technology and personnel, including 100,000 new detention beds to manage surges and speed processing. For undocumented immigrants who have lived in the United States long term, the proposal offers a seven-year earned legal status program, with check-ins every two years, fees and documentation requirements to demonstrate community ties. The measure also includes legal status and a path to citizenship for Dreamers, people brought to the country as children, and would mandate nationwide use of E-Verify for new hires to enforce compliance in workplaces.
Asylum procedures would see sweeping changes under the Dignity Act. The plan would create humanitarian campuses for asylum processing, aiming to conduct faster credible fear interviews while providing legal support to applicants. Its legal immigration component targets decades-long backlogs by doubling per-country caps, recapturing unused visas and putting money into federal agencies to speed adjudications. ABIC’s materials cite funding for backlog reduction at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the State Department, including $2.56 billion directed to USCIS to expand staffing and cut waits. The bill also proposes new visa categories, including “family purpose” non-immigrant visas for short-term family visits and streamlined paths to immigration benefits for military service members.
The Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which ABIC is pairing with its push for the Dignity Act, aims to stabilize the supply of agricultural labor by modernizing the H-2A temporary farmworker program and offering a legal status process for experienced farmworkers. ABIC argues farm labor certainty is essential for food supply chains and consumer prices. The American Business Immigration Coalition says business leaders across agriculture, logistics and food processing are especially exposed to labor shortages that have persisted since the pandemic and worsened as older workers retire.
ABIC’s strategy is overtly bipartisan and rooted in voter concerns about both border security and the economy. Rep. Salazar has emphasized enforcement as a starting point, declaring,
“Secure the border, stop illegal immigration,”
in promoting the Dignity Act’s security measures. From the Democratic side, Rep. Gabe Vasquez, part of the New Democrat Coalition, has tied legal pathways to competitiveness and labor needs, saying, “We need to fix the broken asylum system and grow our workforce,” and projecting a $900 billion GDP boost over a decade from reforms that combine enforcement and expanded lawful immigration. Rep. Escobar has cast the bill’s blend of law-and-order changes and status reforms as a way to move past years of stalemate, saying,
“The Dignity Act offers humanity and security in one package. It restores dignity to those navigating a broken system for decades.”
The political pitch is backed by retail and industry voices who say they cannot find enough workers and see little chance of meeting demand without legal access to immigrant talent already in the country. ABIC leaders say small contractors in construction face delays that ripple through housing markets, while hospitals and long-term care facilities cannot fill critical roles even after raising wages. They argue the gap is wider in states reliant on agriculture and tourism, and that removing current workers would push inflation higher by curbing output and raising costs. Business groups in Chicago, where ABIC is headquartered, have served as early test cases for messaging that pairs border security with attainable work permits for long-settled immigrants.
Lawmakers engaging with ABIC are also mapping out frameworks meant to bridge ideological divides. At an ABIC event in May 2025, Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) outlined a five-pillar approach he calls “Securing the Border and Fueling Economic Prosperity,” linking voters’ demands for order at the border to a need for realistic legal pathways. He said:
“Talking to a lot of Mexican-American immigrants, a lot of them were very disturbed with what they saw at the border. They wanted legal pathways to get into this country. They wanted to deal with the people that were in this country illegally but had largely kept their nose clean, had […] a work history,”
describing a pragmatic lane for compromise. Moderates and independents, ABIC notes, are looking for that middle ground, but election cycles and party infighting have repeatedly stalled legislation.
ABIC’s letter-writing and summit planning are designed to keep pressure on the legislative calendar before the end of the year. The coalition says more than 200 businesses signed the July appeal, ranging from restaurant groups and farm operators to construction firms and healthcare providers, to show that employers with different politics share the same workforce problem. The group’s October meetings will include direct conversations with Republican and Democratic offices, training sessions for business leaders who want to make the economic case in their districts, and coordinated outreach to members on committees with jurisdiction over immigration, labor and homeland security. The American Business Immigration Coalition argues that practical work permits and earned status—particularly the seven-year program detailed in the Dignity Act—would pull millions of workers out of the shadows, meet labor needs and create a level playing field for compliant employers.
The coalition is also warning the White House and congressional leaders that large-scale enforcement without legal off-ramps would ripple across supply chains. ABIC’s leaders say that when factories, farms and hospitals lose trained workers, backlogs grow and costs climb. By their account, passing enforcement in isolation would drive employers to cut hours, defer projects and scale back service, while combining enforcement with status and work authorization would ease shortages and lower turnover. Their economic messaging has been sharpened by individual stories like Schulman’s in Chicago, where employers say refugees and long-settled undocumented workers stepped into hard-to-fill shifts that kept production lines running and orders going out on time.
Policy analysts tracking the Dignity Act point to its combination of line-by-line enforcement measures—like mandatory E-Verify—with detailed legalization criteria as a reason the package has attracted bipartisan cosponsors. By requiring check-ins every two years, fees and proof of community ties, backers say the seven-year earned legal status is meant to be both rigorous and workable. The asylum campus plan likewise mixes expedited processing with access to counsel, a design intended to deter frivolous claims while giving legitimate applicants a faster path to a decision. Proposals to double per-country caps and recapture unused visas are pitched as technical fixes that could relieve pressure in both family- and employment-based categories without changing overall numerical limits. Funding streams for USCIS and the State Department are meant to address the bottlenecks that now stretch case timelines across years; ABIC cites $2.56 billion for USCIS backlog reduction as a linchpin for making the rest of the system function.
Republicans backing the Dignity Act frame it as a practical upgrade to border enforcement that also cleans up the jobs market by mandating E-Verify nationwide, preventing employers from undercutting wages with unauthorized hiring. Democrats highlight the Dreamer provisions and the broader legalization track as moral and economic imperatives that would stabilize families, boost tax revenues and expand the labor force. Both sides have reasons to coalesce around visa backlog reforms that are popular with constituents who have waited years for status updates. Yet the coalition acknowledges that partisan gridlock remains a powerful obstacle and that timing bills in a presidential election cycle is hard. ABIC’s leaders insist that polling, employer testimonies and cross-chamber sponsorships give the Dignity Act and the Farm Workforce Modernization Act a chance that broader packages have lacked.
ABIC’s message has also reached local chambers and sector associations. The Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, led by Monica Villalobos, has joined ABIC events, adding state business voices to the push for solutions that match border enforcement with labor market realities. In cities like Chicago, where ABIC is headquartered, employers say they are preparing to bring payroll data and vacancy counts to lawmakers in October to show how current shortages play out on the ground. The coalition’s organizers say that growing the roster of signatories beyond the initial 200-plus businesses is a priority between now and the summit, with outreach to manufacturers, growers, hoteliers and hospital systems.
The legislative text is still subject to committee revisions, and advocates from both parties are expected to offer amendments on enforcement, asylum timelines and the scope of the legalization track. But ABIC’s stance is that the framework is already broad enough to anchor a deal if leadership allows floor time. The group’s July letter was explicit in urging passage this year and stressed the alignment of industry support behind the Dignity Act and the Farm Workforce Modernization Act. ABIC’s rhetoric ties that push directly to the president’s own statements about work permits for long-term immigrants, a bid to frame the bill as consistent with White House priorities while offering congressional Republicans a vehicle to claim border security wins.
Whether that argument breaks the logjam will depend on decisions by committee chairs and party leaders in both chambers. For now, ABIC is betting that testimonies from employers who cannot fill shifts, data on a 1.7 million worker shortage and warnings about inflation will make the case that immigration reform is an economic tool as much as a border policy. The coalition’s leaders say they will keep bringing business owners like Schulman to Washington to stand alongside lawmakers and insist that political slogans translate into law. As Shi put it in the July letter,
“The Dignity Act mirrors what President Trump has said multiple times about work permits for long-term, law-abiding immigrants. This bill offers a real solution backing the President’s vision, and the American people — 76 percent in recent polls — are on board. Let’s get it done.”
For details on legislative status and bill texts, see the U.S. Congress website at Congress.gov.
This Article in a Nutshell
The American Business Immigration Coalition, representing over 1,700 employers, urges Congress and President Trump to pass the Dignity Act and Farm Workforce Modernization Act in 2025. ABIC released a July 18 letter signed by 200+ businesses calling for work permits and legal status to address a 1.7 million worker shortage and ease inflationary pressures. The Dignity Act pairs border investments — including 100,000 detention beds and mandatory E-Verify — with a seven-year earned legal status, asylum processing reforms and $2.56 billion to reduce USCIS backlogs. ABIC will hold an October summit to press lawmakers and amplify employer testimonies across key sectors.
