Legislature(2025 - 2026)GRUENBERG 120
02/19/2025 03:00 PM House JUDICIARY
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Presentation(s): Immigration in Alaska | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
HOUSE JUDICIARY STANDING COMMITTEE
February 19, 2025
3:01 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Andrew Gray, Chair
Representative Chuck Kopp, Vice Chair
Representative Ted Eischeid
Representative Genevieve Mina
Representative Sarah Vance
Representative Jubilee Underwood
MEMBERS ABSENT
Representative Mia Costello
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
PRESENTATION(S): IMMIGRATION IN ALASKA
- HEARD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record
WITNESS REGISTER
MARA KIMMEL, Executive Director
Alaska Civil Liberties Union
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Co-offered the Immigration in Alaska
presentation.
ANNA TAYLOR, Deputy Director
Alaska Institute for Justice
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Co-offered the Immigration in Alaska
presentation.
ISSA SPATRISANO, Alaska State Refugee Coordinator
Catholic Social Services
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Co-offered the Immigration in Alaska
presentation.
KIRK ROSE, Executive Director
Anchorage Community Land Trust
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Co-offered the Immigration in Alaska
presentation.
TETYANA ROBBINS, Executive Director
Project Alaska
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Co-offered the Immigration in Alaska
presentation.
DEEPIKA RAMESH PERUMAL, Executive Director
Alaska Literacy Program
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Co-offered the Immigration in Alaska
presentation.
ACTION NARRATIVE
3:01:35 PM
CHAIR ANDREW GRAY called the House Judiciary Standing Committee
meeting to order at 3:01 p.m. Representatives Eischeid, Kopp,
and Gray were present at the call to order. Representatives
Underwood, Mina, and Vance arrived as the meeting was in
progress.
^PRESENTATION(S): Immigration in Alaska
PRESENTATION(S): Immigration in Alaska
3:02:19 PM
CHAIR GRAY announced that the only order of business would be
the Immigration in Alaska presentation.
3:03:24 PM
MARA KIMMEL, Executive Director, Alaska Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU), gave to a PowerPoint presentation on the ACLU Alaska
[hard copy included in the committee packet]. She gave an
overview of the ACLU and the communities it serves in Alaska, as
well as their spending power and their economic contributions to
the state. In response to a series of committee questions, she
explained that if an individual is residing in the U.S. lawfully
and can apply for lawful permanent residence, citizenship can be
applied for after 5 years; however, the process is complicated
and fraught with many obstacles and costs and is only available
to a small number of people who seek entry. She explained that
people who are born in American Samoa are "U.S. Nationals,"
meaning they can remain here indefinitely, live and work here,
but are not U.S. citizens. She reported that Alaska's rate of
naturalization ranks fourth highest in the country, which speaks
to peoples' commitment to becoming Alaskans. She resumed the
presentation with a breakdown of immigration status in Alaska by
the numbers and outlined the complicated process of obtaining a
green card.
3:21:53 PM
ANNA TAYLOR, Deputy Director, Alaska Institute for Justice
(AIJ), gave a PowerPoint presentation, titled "Victims of Crime
in Alaska" [hard copy included in the committee packet]. She
offered background information on the AIJ and described a
pyramid table of immigration status. She explained how
undocumented immigrants are more vulnerable to victimization and
said immigration status can affect a person's work
authorization, driver's license, social security number,
housing, and fear of law enforcement. She described the
Immigrant Power and control Wheel graphic, which shows the ways
in which immigrants may be victimized and coerced based on their
status. She discussed the roadmap to obtaining U.S. citizenship
and outlined the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Self
Petitions, T Visas, and U Visas.
3:36:41 PM
MS. TAYLOR, in response to a series of committee questions, said
Alaska Legal Services Corporation (ASLC) works with immigrants
but not on immigration applications; U Visas are capped at
10,000 per year with a wait list of 200,000, and T Visas are
capped at 5,000 per year. She offered that making the path to
citizenship easier to understand and improving safety and
justice for everyone may be two solutions to the immigration
issue. With regard to the demand for services, she said federal
grants allow AIJ to offer free services to victims of crime. If
someone does not qualify, they are charged on a sliding scale
based on their income and the difficulty of the case. She
acknowledged that demand is higher than supply and that AIJ is
the only nonprofit that offers immigration legal services. She
estimated that there are less than 15 immigration lawyers in
Alaska. Ms. Taylor explained that the same methods of power and
control that make people vulnerable to domestic violence make
them vulnerable to human trafficking and the two are often
correlated.
3:47:02 PM
ISSA SPATRISANO, Alaska State Refugee Coordinator, Catholic
Social Services (CSS), gave a PowerPoint presentation, titled
Building Belonging: Welcoming Our Newest Alaskans Through
Refugee Resettlement Across the State" [hard copy included in
the committee packet]. She listed the populations served by
CSS, noting that Ukrainian humanitarian parolees do not have a
pathway to permanent status; however, they are the largest
arrival group since Fiscal Year 2022 (FY 22). She shared the
current caseload demographics by city and outlined the Alaska
Office for Refugees sub-awardees. She described the Office of
Refugee Resettlement (ORR) eligible client job skills,
explaining that more than 800 workers bring 40 plus skillsets to
Alaska's workforce and an overall net benefit to the economy.
She summarized federal FY 24 employment outcomes and shared an
anecdotal example and discussed "brain waste," which she
described as individuals working in jobs that don't match their
skillset. She added that an increase in job training programs
could help combat the brain waste, which would economically
benefit the state.
3:59:31 PM
MS. SPATRISANO, in response to a series of committee questions,
clarified that while the Refugee Resettlement Program provides
some resources, refugees arrive in the country in debt from the
travel loan for their flight. Some cash assistance programs
offer help for the first 90 days, but its not enough to pay for
their rent. She relayed that people are becoming employed
relatively quickly because they are heavily motivated to find
employment after spending 17 years on average in displacement.
She said no one wants to be a refugee, as they were forced to
flee their home country. She explained that these people are
grateful; however, it is not what they hoped for their families.
She said CSS tries to invest in projects that match the diverse
needs of each community, such as the VFW in the Mat-Su. She
spoke to career paths in trucking and the health care industry
and said many states are reconsidering credentialing to lower
the barrier to entry in certain fields. Beyond credentialing,
employers may want to rethink the traditional job applications
and interview processes, which may not be the best determinant.
She said there's more than one way to assess whether a person
can do the job, and encouraged employers to think creatively
about the way they hire. She said Fresh International Gardens
(FIG) plays an essential role in ensuring that these individuals
are learning English, gaining experience, and learning skills in
a place where their kids can be present. She said its more
than just a job training program because workers are paid $11
per hour. She shared an anecdotal example.
4:15:02 PM
KIRK ROSE, Executive Director, Anchorage Community Land Trust
(ACLT), offered the following prepared remarks [original
punctuation provided]:
I'm Kirk Rose, CEO of Anchorage Community Land Trust
or ACLT. We are a 501c3 non-profit that for over 20
years has been partnering with communities to bring
concentrated opportunity and investment to low-income
neighborhoods in Anchorage through a toolkit of real
estate, advocacy, community infrastructure
improvements, and targeted programming.
Our place-based approach creates community wealth,
local jobs, resident leadership, and economic
opportunity for families. We work with hundreds of
neighborhood businesses and entrepreneurs through our
program Set Up Shop, which provides a line of
training, resources and support to entrepreneurs and
business owners in historically underserved
communities. Set Up Shop is designed to catalyze
community revitalization by empowering entrepreneurs,
typically those who have been historically underserved
like women and Alaska Natives, to open the business of
their dreams and in turn build community prosperity
from within.
In Alaska, some of the biggest economic headwinds we
face are population-related. They are about people.
The data and headlines affirm it - outmigration and
labor shortages resulting in the highest levels of
out-of-state hiring our state has experienced, with
more than one in five workers being nonresidents.
These challenges pose real threats to the strength and
sustainability of Alaska's economy.
Today, I'm going to tell you about:
- The economic impact of new Alaskans in small
business ownership, entrepreneurship and workforce
participation
- The community connectedness we experience from
better integrating New Alaskans
- Models from the State of Michigan about how the
economic impact of New Americans changed the
trajectory of their state economy.
Economic Impact of New Alaskans (how define):
From our decades of experience working in
neighborhoods that host our city's highest percentages
of foreign-born residents, we have seen what happens
when we invest in new Alaskans- it strengthens our
community and economy from within.
There are roughly 56,000 foreign-born residents in our
State. In Anchorage, 11.1% of New Alaskans were self-
employed or worked for their own businesses. This
compares to 7.7% of the U.S. born population. Alaska's
numbers are even higher than the national average.
Nationally, foreign born residents are 28% more likely
to be self-employed or work for their own business
than native-born citizens.
New Alaskans contribute over $1.4B in spending power
to the State paying over $300M in state, local and
federal taxes.
In 2014, the nearly 3,000 foreign-born business owners
in Alaska generated $58.5 million in business income,
making them an impactful economic force.1 10 years
later, we know these numbers have only grown.
While New Alaskans made up 8.5% of Anchorage's total
population, immigrants made up 14.2%, or approximately
one in seven, of Anchorage's small business owners.
Foreign-born residents are more likely to start new
businesses. In addition to starting businesses, data
shows that New Alaskans have significant spending
power to support small businesses too.
In addition, New Alaskans who are working age are 39%
more likely to work than Alaskans. These folks are
filling in crucial roles in food entrepreneurship -
our restaurants and meal services; hospitality and
tourism, childcare, nursing and of course -
construction.
If Talent attraction and population growth are top
issues for business and community vitality, and simply
put, they are, then we need to ensure we maintain and
grow our New Alaskan communities. Immigration is a
critical source to our state's economic prosperity and
our future growth.
Many of our Set Up Shop clients come from refugee and
immigrant communities. Through a partnership with
Catholic Social Services and New Chance, we have 1 New
Americans in Anchorage: A Snapshot of the Demographic
and Economic Contributions of Immigrants in the City
of Anchorage (no date) New American Economy. Available
at:
https://www.newamericaneconomy.org/wpcontent/uploads/2
017/02/nae-ct-report.pdf (Accessed: 14 February
2025).
graduated over 20 entrepreneurs and business owners
from the Ukrainian refugee community through small
business trainings taught in Ukrainian. These are New
Alaskan residents whose lives were upended due to a
global tragedy, who had to pick up and start from
scratch in their new home. Nearly every graduate of
the trainings had a story of entrepreneurship back in
Ukraine and wanted to rebuild their businesses here in
Alaska. One entrepreneur had a construction business
in Ukraine that employed over 200 people, who has been
in the process of launching his new Alaskan
construction business here so that he can become an
employer in his new home. Another graduate was
operating a mobile nail service with such strong
demand for her services that she has now opened a
brick and mortar nail salon and hired her first
employee. Another entrepreneur has launched a home
repair and handyman business that has grown so rapidly
that he is about to hire his first employees. These
are just some of so many stories of New Alaskans
strengthening our economy and community from the
moment they arrive.
We also feel that in community connectedness. I wanted
to highlight one such example for the record because
it's truly a model and framework for the country
Grow North Farm, a partnership between CSS and ACLT
where refugee and immigrant families have planted the
seeds of self-sufficiency, generational wealth and
well-being. Over 20 farmers and food business owners
from refugee and immigrant communities grow and
operate their businesses in a 28,000 square foot urban
farm in Mountain View, with locally grown produce sold
on-site to customers. A once vacant parking lot has
become a treasured community gathering space and
bright spot in our community. It's the best place to
be a kid in the city. Participating vendors have
brought in over $500,000 in sales since the Farm's
launch in 2019, empowering them to build prosperity at
the same time. The refugee and immigrant families in
our neighborhood truly make Mountain View a richer
place.
Global Detroit as a Case Study
Finally, I want to talk about Michigan. Remember when
Detroit went from 3M to 600,000 people. This
community, once struggling with population decline and
disinvestment, has seen remarkable improvements by
welcoming and integrating immigrants and refugees into
the community and have inspired change across the
state of Michigan that goes beyond just Detroit.
This success is not an anomaly. Across the country,
cities AND STATES embracing immigrant inclusion see
tangible benefitsmore vibrant local economies,
stronger housing markets, and improved quality of life
for all residents. Policies that support immigrant
entrepreneurs and homeowners provide stability in
disinvested neighborhoods and create lasting
prosperity. The evidence is clear: when we invest in
people, we invest in the future of our communities.
Let's take this case study as inspiration and build
policies that ensure opportunity for all.
So, as we think about this work moving forward, I want
to highlight a quote from a former Michigan
congressman and Executive Director of Global Detroit
and the Michigan Global Talent Coalition, Steve
Tobocman. Steve Tobocman, Executive Director of Global
Detroit, a member organization of the Michigan Global
Talent Coalition. "Immigration has been the single
biggest driver of population growth in Michigan for 30
years, and all of the prior research on this topic
acknowledges that reality. It's absolutely imperative
for policy leaders to invest in what has proven to be
our strongest asset in fighting population loss and
economic stagnationour immigrant workforce.
In Michigan in 2023, Government created the nation's
first Chief Growth Officer within state government to
focus efforts to grow Michigan's population, economy,
and reputation as the best place to live, work, raise
a family, and start a business. They also commissioned
the Growing Michigan Together Council to tackle these
issues. When they made immigration a priority, it has
paid major dividends. 57.7 percent of the state's
population growth over the last decade is attributable
to New Americans. In conclusion, Immigrants can help
the state meet crucial labor force demands. In
Michigan, immigrants represented 18.6 percent of
Michigan's workers in science, technology,
engineering, and math (STEM) fields, despite only
comprising 6.9 percent of the state's total
population.
The same strategy that's worked in Michigan is the
right strategy for Alaska too. Immigrants help us
build stronger communities and invest deeply in their
new homes. Immigrants launch businesses that create
jobs and contribute innovation to our economy. Alaska
is facing largescale economic challenges that the
Legislature is tasked with solving. We are all here
with you today to be willing partners in helping you
strategize a roadmap forward. We will build, support
and hone State to build a more vibrant economy for
Alaskans regardless of place of birth. We stand ready
to support.
4:24:15 PM
TETYANA ROBBINS, Executive Director, Project Alaska, presented a
PowerPoint on Project Alaska [hard copy included in the
committee packet]. She provided background on why so many
Ukrainians have migrated to Alaska, how Project Alaska was
created, and the effort to bring them to Alaska. Airfare was
covered by volunteers who helped with housing during the
resettlement effort. Since spring 2022, over 300 Ukrainian
families have arrived in Alaska. She highlighted the difference
between refugees and immigrants. She acknowledged that the huge
increase in numbers has put strain on services. Nonetheless,
she said she considers Ukrainians nontraditional refugees
because they come in with nontraditional skillsets. She
described the services offered by Project Alaska and
characterized Ukrainians as breaking the refugee stereotypes due
to their unique skillsets and high qualifications. She
addressed the Wes Diploma Evaluation and touched on the numerous
community partners in Alaska that help navigate educational,
financial, and training opportunities. She discussed advocacy
at the federal, state, and local level for the elimination of
barriers and the expansion of support systems.
4:47:31 PM
DEEPIKA RAMESH PERUMAL, Executive Director, Alaska Literacy
Program (ALP), gave a PowerPoint presentation on the Alaska
Literacy Program [hard copy included in the committee packet].
She gave an overview of the program and its importance to
immigrants. She said ALP offers assistance in English,
workplace, digital, health, finances, family, and test
preparation. The average student age is 41 and 88 percent are
working or available to work. She highlighted one student's
journey who came to the program in 2016 and by 2025, began
working at a state support agency. She noted ALP's growth,
explaining that until 2021, ALP averaged 350 students per year,
which has grown to 600 students per quarter.
5:08:37 PM
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the committee, the House
Judiciary Standing Committee meeting was adjourned at 5:08 p.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| HJUD Immigration in Alaska 2.18.25.pdf |
HJUD 2/19/2025 3:00:00 PM |
Immigration in Alaska |
| AOR employment 2025_FINAL2.18.25.pdf |
HJUD 2/19/2025 3:00:00 PM |
Immigration in Alaska |
| AOR_WorkExperience_2025_2page_v5.pdf |
HJUD 2/19/2025 3:00:00 PM |
Immigration in Alaska |