PNAE Highlights from 2015

2015 was a busy year for PNAE!

Immigration reform won’t be achieved with one argument or by one party. So we’ve been busy shining a light on how immigration affects every sector of our economy — from agriculture, to technology, to housing and manufacturing. Fixing this broken system will spur job creation and economic growth. And we’ve shown how supporting reform will be a boon for both parties.

We analyzed the data and told the stories, with our research arm producing 17 reports and briefs and 13 polls. We educated lawmakers and armed advocates with the tools they needed to fight for reform, and we mobilized influencers in key districts to build new bases of support.

Our field operation engaged the business, agriculture, tech, faith, and donor communities in key congressional districts across 11 states helping our country’s leaders push for immigration reform. We produced ads calling attention to the need for high-skilled immigration reform and immigrant contributions to Medicare and the healthcare industry, which aired in taxicabs, movie theaters, airports, and online.

At the local level, we worked with states and cities to help communities everywhere leverage the power of immigrants toward economic growth and build broader bases of support for federal reform.

The Partnership Made the Economic Case for Reform 

This year, we crunched the data, putting out reports and research briefs on doctor shortages in rural counties and how immigrant doctors are helping, declines in production and labor in the farming industry, and the contributions and sacrifices of foreign-born men and women in uniform, among others. We told the stories, like we did with the #LetPJStay campaign, featuring Pierre-Jean “PJ” Cobut, an immigrant entrepreneur from Belgium who was facing having to move his company — and the American jobs he had created — abroad if he did not receive a visa in this year’s H-1B lottery. The campaign kicked off with the launch of the LetPJStay.com website, a new ad telling PJ’s story, new research showing how high-skilled immigrants create American jobs, a Thunderclap that reached nearly 11.5 million people, a media call hosted by PNAE, an op-ed by PJ in The Hill, a Capitol Hill briefing to educate staffers, and a nearly 10,000-strong petition to Congress to pass high-skilled immigration reform.

The Partnership Made the Political Case for Reform

As election season heated up this summer, PNAE partnered with former Romney Deputy Campaign Manager Katie Packer-Gage to release new polling of likely GOP voters in early primary states (IA, NH, and SC) and likely general election voters in 10 battleground states (CO, FL, IA, MI, NV, NC, NH, OH, VA, WI), as well as focus groups in Iowa and Ohio, to assess American voters’ views on immigration. Results showed that not only is an anti-immigration stance a bad general election strategy, but a bad primary strategy, too. Gage told her story to media outlets like “Morning Joe” and published an op-ed in Politico, “Don’t Make Mitt Romney’s Mistake On Immigration.” PNAE also released a report and interactive map looking at demographic changes and the impact of potential new Hispanic and Asian voters in the coming election cycles.

The Partnership Brought New Voices to the Table and Engaged New Audiences 

This fall, PNAE partnered with the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC) to launch Faith Voices for Immigrants, a campaign that called on faith leaders all across the country to make the faith-based case for immigration reform, which included a D.C. fly-in that brought 40 prominent Christian leaders to Capitol Hill to meet with lawmakers and others to discuss the need for sensible, fair, and compassionate immigration reform. PNAE also partnered with “The Michael Medved Show” on a six-week radio campaign that discussed the need for immigration reform, which aired on Christian radio stations across the country.

The Partnership Helped Cities and States Promote Immigrant Integration

The Partnership continued its state and local immigrant integration arm, working closely with state and city leaders to help communities harness the economic power of immigrants and build bases of support for reform across America. These initiatives have included helping Ohio launch an international student retention program and the release of new research on the economic contributions of immigrants in the cities of Cincinnati, Dayton, Denver, Louisville, and Toledo. And most recently, PNAE, in partnership with Welcoming America, recently announced its Gateways for Growth Challenge, a competition for local governments, chambers of commerce, and nonprofit organizations to jointly apply for research, technical assistance, and matching grants to support their strategic planning processes.