As someone who works day in and day out with low- and middle-income people throughout Colorado, I am very worried about the credit card mandates Joe Kefauver supported in his March 5 op-ed.

I serve as president of the Ethiopian Community of Colorado, and one of our goals as an organization is to provide guidance to newly arriving Ethiopian immigrants. Some of the first things they need to navigate is the United States’ banking system. New immigrants depend on neighbors, relatives or fellow church members to help them understand how banks and credit work here. In Ethiopia, cash is still very common. Here, the credit card infrastructure is strong, and many in our community apply for credit cards. Just like other people, we appreciate the safety of buying with a card or app on a phone. The rewards you can earn are also helpful.

For instance, traveling from Denver International Airport to Addis Ababa Bole International Airport in Ethiopia is a long, expensive journey. A direct flight can easily take 15 hours, but one with layovers can take 30 hours! As you can imagine, a trip back to see family is one immigrants must save up for years and years. Being able to earn miles using an airline credit card makes this a little bit easier. Even if the miles can’t pay for the whole trip, they can help lower the cost enough to make the trip a little bit sooner. When you are traveling to see older relatives or parents, sometimes every month you have to wait matters.

Stay up to speed: Sign up for daily opinion in your inbox Monday-Friday

But the recent op-ed by Mr. Kefauver supports legislation that will, essentially, stop credit card rewards. The mandates will make it extremely difficult for credit unions and community banks to continue to offer these types of benefits. Mr. Kefauver believes these mandates are necessary to lower interchange fees. He blames the 2% or so credit card companies collect on purchases made with credit cards for why restaurants have closed in Colorado. This ignores the effects of the pandemic and struggling economy and instead blames the financial industry that provides the payments technology small businesses need.

Our community has restaurant owners — some of whom focus on Ethiopian food and introducing our communal style of eating and unique food to Americans. I know their top expenses aren’t these fees: it’s rent, labor, food costs, insurance, etc.  Additionally, these fees are stable and don’t go up much over time. You can’t say the same for food and rent prices in our state.

Mr. Kefauver also argues this will be easy for big banks to do. He seems to not know a lot of local community banks and credit unions will bear the burden of this legislation. Many smaller banks have had to close their doors in my generation, and this will further put them at risk as they lose a portion of their revenue.

Using legislation to put new mandates on credit cards will hurt Colorado’s economy, not help it. The families I know that use credit card rewards will greatly miss those miles or cashback. Plus, some of those very families work in industries that will be severely and negatively impacted. As people throughout the country earn fewer or zero miles or cashback, their travel will, without a doubt, go down. This will hurt the thousands of immigrants that work in the hospitality industry in our state. This will also hurt union jobs at places like Denver International Airport, one of the busiest airports in the nation. It’s why unions at the airport are opposed to it.

This will doubly hurt families — imagine losing your job while also losing credit card rewards. Our senators have long supported the immigrants who come to our country and work hard to integrate into American culture and build a life here. I ask them to continue to support these families and the jobs we rely on by opposing these mandates.

Samuel G. Michael is president of the Ethiopian Community of Colorado.