Proposal to create immigration office in North Dakota sails through Senate

BISMARCK — A majority of North Dakota senators endorsed legislation that would have the state play a more active role in helping businesses find legal immigrants to fill jobs.

The Senate voted 39-5 on Tuesday, Feb. 14, to approve Senate Bill 2142, which would establish a state-run immigration office within the Department of Commerce. The House will now consider the proposal.

Conservative lawmakers significantly whittled down the original bill sponsored by Sen. Tim Mathern, D-Fargo, but supporters said the diluted proposal still represents a positive step in addressing the state’s workforce shortage.

The Senate previously killed a separate bill sponsored by Mathern that would have offered working immigrants up to $160,000 in forgivable loans.

The bill passed Tuesday would allow the Commerce Department to hire one full-time employee to run the upstart office. That employee would be charged with:

• Coordinating the immigration process and placement of international workers in North Dakota.
• Helping recently immigrated workers with financial, legal and housing applications and forms.
• Collaborating with employers to help immigrants access housing, food and essential services.
• Encouraging more foreign workers to come to the state.

Mathern’s proposal also requires leading lawmakers to study “the immigration needs in the state” before the 2025 legislative session.

Proponents of the bipartisan legislation say the state needs immigrant workers to fill workforce gaps and that providing small business owners with a public resource could facilitate more in-migration.

Job Service North Dakota recently estimated that 40,000 positions are available statewide.

Sen. Doug Larsen, R-Mandan, said labor-starved businesses are being “restricted from growth,” and it’s unrealistic to count on thousands of Americans moving to North Dakota from other states with good job opportunities.

Larsen noted that he generally opposes moves to “grow government,” but as a business owner, he knows that hiring foreign workers is too difficult and too expensive for most small employers to manage on their own.

Sen. Kristin Roers, R-Fargo, and several other bill supporters noted that limiting the immigration office to just a single employee would allow for little more than an employer-support hotline. Still, she favored moving the bill forward in its diminished state.

Vocal opposition to the legislation Tuesday came entirely from Sen. Janne Myrdal, a Republican from Edinburg who immigrated to North Dakota from Norway.

Myrdal referred to Mathern’s bill as “feel-good” legislation, noting that the difficulties faced by immigrants are part of the deal they make when coming to the U.S. She said immigration is a complex federal issue, and the employee hired to run the proposed office would be ineffective since they couldn’t give any legal advice.

If the bill becomes law, it wouldn’t be the first time North Dakota has operated an immigration office.

Lawmakers in the Dakota Territory established a bureau of immigration to “facilitate the ingress of immigrants” in 1874 — about 15 years before North Dakota and South Dakota were admitted to the union as separate states.

In 1915, North Dakota policymakers created a position for an immigration commissioner, but amid the economic struggles of the Great Depression, legislators abolished the post in 1933.

The elimination of the office coincided with the beginning of a gradual decline in North Dakota’s population, which continued until the Bakken oil boom in the late 2000s.