Is Ace hardware helping immigration
Executive summary
The short answer is: it depends which "ACE/Ace" is meant — the Ace Hardware retail chain shows minimal documented use of employment‑based visas in publicly available records, while the nonprofit/academic organization ACE is actively producing research and advocacy on immigration policy (two different entities) [1] [2] [3] [4] [5].
1. Clarifying the question: three different "ACE/Ace" actors are being conflated
The landscape of sources shows at least three distinct actors that the question could refer to: Ace Hardware, the retail cooperative and chain; ACE or "American Council on Education," an education policy group publishing immigration research and briefs; and the CBP Automated Commercial Environment, commonly called "ACE," which is a customs IT system unrelated to immigration assistance — the reporting treats these separately and so must the analysis [1] [3] [6].
2. What the retailer Ace Hardware has done, according to public visa‑tracking data
Employer‑focused visa trackers report that Ace Hardware filed a very small number of Labor Condition Applications (LCAs) for H‑1B petitions and related immigration paperwork in recent years — for example, the MyVisaJobs summary records show Ace Hardware filed two LCAs for H‑1B visas and one labor petition for a green card in fiscal year 2025, with related prevailing wage requests noted in the same record [1]. A separate MyVisaJobs page for an Ace Hardware CNMI entity shows no H‑1B or green card petitions in 2025 and only two prevailing wage requests, underscoring that filings are limited and can vary by legal entity [2]. These data points indicate corporate sponsorship of individual employment‑based cases but do not show large‑scale corporate hiring via H‑1B or mass sponsorship programs [1] [2].
3. What "ACE" (American Council on Education) is doing on immigration policy
The American Council on Education (ACE) is explicitly engaged in research, briefs and advocacy about immigration as it affects higher education — for instance ACE has released issue briefs and reported how federal immigration policy shifts affect international students, faculty and campus communities, and participates in lawsuits and coalition letters alongside other higher education groups [3] [4] [5]. That engagement is policy‑focused rather than about sponsoring individual immigrant workers for visas; ACE frames its work as guidance and campaigning on how immigration rules affect campuses [3] [5].
4. Why the CBP "ACE" reference is not evidence of Ace Hardware helping immigration
Some searches surface the CBP Automated Commercial Environment (also abbreviated ACE), which is a trade reporting and customs processing platform; while it has an "Ask ACE" portal and deployment schedule, it is a federal import/export IT system and not an actor that provides immigration assistance or sponsorship [6]. Conflating that federal "ACE" with Ace Hardware or the policy group ACE would misattribute roles and agendas [6].
5. Bottom line assessment: limited corporate sponsorship vs. active policy advocacy by a separate ACE
Putting the pieces together, there is documented but minimal employer‑sponsored immigration activity by Ace Hardware corporate entities in public visa‑tracking sources, indicating occasional H‑1B and green‑card petitions rather than large‑scale immigration facilitation [1] [2]. Separately, the American Council on Education (ACE) clearly helps campuses navigate and advocates around immigration policy affecting students and staff, which is a different form of "helping" that is policy and research oriented [3] [4] [5]. The CBP ACE system is an unrelated federal IT platform and should not be read as evidence that Ace Hardware or ACE the nonprofit is directly assisting immigration processing [6].
6. Limitations and unanswered questions in the available reporting
Available sources include employer‑reported visa tracker summaries and organizational policy pages but are not exhaustive: MyVisaJobs notes updates and provides USCIS/Department of Labor‑derived summaries but cautions about correlation limits between DOL certifications and USCIS visa issuances, and does not capture every possible sponsorship channel or store‑level hiring practices [1] [2]. The ACE policy pages outline advocacy activity but do not translate into counts of individuals helped or casework metrics, and no source here provides a comprehensive audit of Ace Hardware’s full immigration‑related hiring practices or of private, local hiring that could affect undocumented workers or day laborers [1] [2] [3] [5].