LINCOLN- Nebraska business leaders are arguing that it's "glaringly apparent" that the state won't be able to meet its workforce needs without more immigrants, according to a consultant to the Nebraska Chamber Foundation. The North Carolina-based Economic Leadership Group, which consults with the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is meant to assess the state's economic competitiveness.

The group released a trio of reports examining how Nebraska stacks up among its peer states in an array of areas, the health of the state's manufacturing industry, and immigration in relation to the state's workforce. In all three studies, immigration surfaced as a top solution to fill the state's workforce gaps and ward off economic decline.

According to the reports, a majority of Nebraskans consider the current federal immigration system "broken." "They understood that there's a stigma around illegal immigration but stressed that legal paths must be improved," the consultant group wrote, "They felt that America needs to 'close the back door' but 'open the front door' for a greater volume of legal immigration."

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