Lisa Winton was one of the business owners featured in the American Business Immigration Coalition – ABIC‘s press conference on August 15, 2023. They urged Biden to expand workforce authorization for immigrants and consider allowing the states to issue work permits for needy industries to address the worker shortages across America.

“My name is Lisa Winton, and I am the CEO of Winton Machine Company in Suwanee, GA, near Atlanta.

I want to say that, if there is one thing, I am most proud of, 25 years after my husband George and I started our business out of our basement, is that we have built sophisticated manufacturing systems right here in the U.S.

We design, manufacture, and service our coax and tube fabrication machinery right here in Georgia.

We help factories around the world make parts for their products, ranging from the NASA Mars Exploration Rover to Raytheon’s Iron Dome that protects Israel to General Electric refrigerators.

We have succeeded with a team committed to training and developing the next generation of manufacturing talent.

Our workforce of forty employees, including foreign-born workers, continues to build high-quality American-made machinery.

To be blunt, we desperately need more workers, including immigrant workers, if we are going to continue to grow and thrive in the coming years.

In Georgia, the public investment that Congress passed is going to total $6.7 billion. That is on top of the $33 billion already announced by the private sector.

Among the projects highlighted by the current administration is one by Absolics, which broke ground in Covington Georgia on a $600 million manufacturing facility that will supply advanced materials to the U.S. semiconductor industry.

That is fine, but where are the workers?

My business and my state need President Biden to use his authority under current law to expand work permits for immigrant workers, including those who have been contributing to the U.S. economy for years but do not have work permits.

And let us be clear: A presidential administration has the authority to do this if it would result in a significant public benefit to the U.S., and it surely would.

I have had an ad running for five months looking for skilled machinists and I am unable to find the talent that I need. I heard from one recent candidate that he applied for his green card 8 years ago and his employers continue to assist with H1B Visa renewal.

At the end of May, there were 28 states with job openings rates above the national rate of 5.9 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Georgia’s rate was a whopping 7 percent. And that does not include the even bigger problems in the agriculture industry.

I am here to tell you that we could not have survived for 25 years without immigrant workers. Our first employee, all those years ago was Tran, who arrived in the U.S. as a refugee from Vietnam and is still with us today. His son is now an engineer.

I am urging Biden to expand workforce authorization for immigrants. He also should consider allowing the states to issue work permits for needy industries.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, is leading the state’s plan, and it is picking up bipartisan support among governors.

I hope that my governor, Brian Kemp, joins Governor Cox and works with the White House to address the worker shortage issue… because Georgia needs this plan, and so do workers, employers, and consumers.

Thank you.”

Learn more about the American Business Immigration Coalition here: https://abic.us/