Bill proposes repeal of immigration office amidst workforce crisis

Rep. Nico Rios (R-Williston) says the concept is simple: Tax dollars should not be used to bring in foreign workers for work in North Dakota that could be done by American citizens. 

He, and several other Republicans, want to remove the Office of Legal Immigration from the state’s Century Code under House Bill 1493. The office was created in 2023.

There are enough people who are U.S. citizens and looking for work, he said. An example is his story of coming a decade ago from the South Side of Chicago to work in the oil fields of the Bakken.

“I moved here to get a high-paying job where there was a demand for workers, and I didn't get my hand held by the government,” Rios said. “I did it on my own.”

Rios said there are plenty of people who would come to work in North Dakota who just haven’t heard of the opportunities. 

“We don't need to be bringing people from all over the world to rural parts of North Dakota because of cheap labor,” he said. 

For many industries, however, attracting workers from across the country is a lot more complex than posting a help wanted ad. 

Workforce crisis

Currently, for every unemployed person in North Dakota there are nearly three job openings available. Job Service North Dakota’s most recent estimates as of Feb. 5 show over 15,000 known open jobs, up 14 percent from the previous month. The agency estimated as many as 40,000 openings could be available if all positions were advertised.

Businesses, including those in the Bakken, have attempted to recruit and retain workers from across the country but those campaigns often can’t meet the full workforce needs. 

This has led to efforts like Bakken GROW, which tapped into humanitarian programs with legal pathways for Ukrainian refugees to fill open positions in the oil fields. 

For smaller businesses that struggle to attract American workers, recruiting from abroad is a minefield of bureaucracy, legal hurdles and lengthy waits. 

The long-term care industry, for example, has for years had a chronic shortage of qualified nurses, with few in the educational and training pipeline.

Facilities with strict federal staffing requirements coupled with rising costs for travel nurses have also looked abroad, often dedicating years to that process. 

Nikki Wegner, president of the North Dakota Long Term Care Association, said the association hadn’t yet taken a position on HB 1493. She said the Office of Legal Immigration had been helpful to members since its formation. 

“Some providers have never gone through the immigration process before, and this office helped them understand how it works and explore different pathways to recruit foreign-born talent,” Wegner said. 

The Office of Legal Immigration officially started up in July 2023 with two full-time staffers. 

It only gained momentum in the past several months as far as working directly with companies and communities that need foreign workers, according to Katie Ralston Howe, director of the workforce division at the ND Department of Commerce. 

So far, OLI efforts with companies resulted in six foreign workers moving to the state. 

Around another 20 companies are currently in the process of recruiting workers from abroad through assistance provided by the OLI, Ralston said. 

Of those 20, more than half are long-term care facilities, she said. 

Companies in agriculture, the food supply chain and manufacturing, as well as oil and gas industries and education, have all shown interest in foreign workers , Ralston said. 

If the OLI is repealed, the current two full-time staff members and the expertise they’ve gained would go with it, she said. 

“We would not be able to continue serving North Dakota employers and communities in the way we are now, because we wouldn’t have the expertise. We’d have to start from scratch, and we wouldn’t have the capacity because our workforce division is already operating in a lot of different areas already,” Ralston said. 

Sen. Jeffery Magrum (R-Hazelton), who has signed on to the effort to repeal the OIL, said he opposed the creation of the office during the past legislative session and doesn't see the need to create more state agencies. 

“Government getting involved in attracting people has never been successful,” Magrum said. History would argue with that, since the American west was largely settled by immigrants through the Congressional Homestead Act, signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862.

Magrum said spending state tax dollars to attract workers is unfair to companies who do it themselves, like his ranching and plumbing businesses. 

“We had to cultivate and find our own people, and here they want to take our money and find employees for somebody else,” Magrum said. 

The first hearing for HB 1493 is at 9:45am on Feb. 11.

Businesses drive hiring

Derrick Gross, executive director of the non-profit CATCH, helps place and integrate foreign families in rural communities across the state. He said employers are driving the foreign worker mix, not the other way around.

“It’s the employers who are desperate,” Gross said. 

Gross said his group has helped with the soft skills of community welcome and integration on several occasions when employers brought in foreign workers themselves. 

“I tell rural communities, you need to be thinking about this and preparing to welcome these families, because your local employers are going to hire them because they (employers) are desperate,” Gross said. 

This has included attracting foreign families who were in the country with proper legal paperwork for work authorization, Gross said. 

“We’re going to need immigrants to fill our medical jobs and our engineering jobs, and companies across North Dakota, they’re bringing people already,” said Leah Hargrove, executive director of Bismarck Global Neighbors, which also works to welcome and integrate immigrants. 

“Businesses are going to bring in workers because they'd rather do that than collapse,” she said. It comes down to helping these workers succeed, thrive and fit in, or losing them to a community where they feel welcome, Hargrove said.

Ralston also mentioned the approximately 2,000 international students who study at North Dakota colleges and universities each year. 

The students gain valuable skills and education, and many would like to stay, but connecting them with businesses and navigating the process can be challenging without institutional help, she said. 

Ralston sees “a lot of synergy” between the OLI and other workforce attraction programs around the state, most notably the Find the Good Life campaign, also directed by the Department of Commerce. 

“It’s this holistic way we’re working to support the growth of our workforce and, in turn, the growth of our communities,” Ralston said. 

Commerce is also looking to change the name of the Office of Legal Immigration to the Global Talent Office, to better reflect the workforce strategy of identifying and attracting talent, Ralston said. 

This change would also need to be reflected in the Century Code and will be included in a request under a Commerce agency bill during this legislative session.

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