DALLAS — Today, North Texas civic, education and businesses held a press conference to promote solutions to grow the state’s economy, address the workforce shortage and keep families together. The event was co-sponsored by the bipartisan American Business Immigration Coalition Action (ABIC Action), American Families United, Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, League of United Latin American Citizens and Texans for Economic Growth.
Juan Carlos Cerda, Texas state director for ABIC Action, called upon President Joe Biden to provide work permits for long-term immigrant contributors that can address the state’s labor shortage and grow the economy. He provided key facts from his presentation, Expanding Work Authorization Opportunities in North Texas:
- There were over 900,000 non-farm job openings in Texas in December 2023.
- Texas has 80 available workers for every 100 open jobs.
- 575,000 long-term undocumented immigrants live in North Texas, including 45,000 married to U.S. citizens.
Following are statements provided by event participants:
Juan Carlos Cerda, Texas State Director for ABIC Action and a Yale University graduate:
“As a DACA recipient, I am an example of what immigrants can do when we have access to work authorization. North Texas has over 34,000 undocumented Dreamers who lack access to DACA and 45,000 undocumented immigrants married to U.S. citizens who cannot be legally employed. To address our region’s labor shortages and grow our economy, President Biden must expand work authorization opportunities for these immigrants.”
Jorge Avila, a U.S. citizen and volunteer member of American Families United, whose wife was barred from re-entering the country during her legalization process:
“My wife and I are struggling after being separated while trying to legalize her status. We dream of being reunited here in the U.S. where we plan on starting a company. My story is similar to over 1 million U.S. citizens married to immigrant spouses. There are 4,400 living in North Texas. In the State of the Union address, President Biden said he would not separate families. Well, today he continues to separate us from our loved ones and he is separating U.S. citizen children from their parents. Today, I call on Biden to expand work authorization to immigrants like my wife and allow her to return to the U.S. President Biden, please allow to be together in the only country that we call home.”
Adam Lampert, CEO, Cambridge Caregivers:
“Our company employs hundreds of staff and provide private duty in-home services to seniors. 80 percent of our care givers are foreign born. I can tell you proudly that our company is highly respected in our industry and we add great value to Texas every day through our work. What I know doesn’t add great value to Texas is our broken immigration system. This has been our experience. First, our company has experienced a tight labor market for years and in our industry, it’s mostly the immigrant community that answers the call to work. As a result of these tight labor markets, there have not been enough workers which has stoked wage inflation, which leads to rising costs which are passed to our customers. Today, we charge nearly 30 percent higher rates than we did four or five years ago. Our Texas consumers are the ones who literally pay the price for our broken immigration policies. The second perspective comes from being a property owner. One of our assisted living facilities was hit by a tornado in 2019. Insurance was quick to respond but it was clear at that time that our construction industry was way backed up because of the lack of available workers, who we know are usually immigrants. These positions remain unfilled. The insurance company ended up paying 30 percent higher prices for repairs. Of course, it took the insurance only a couple of years to smack us with premium increases to recoup those losses. I challenge everyone to think about what happens to their insurance premiums over the last five years. Whether you had a claim or not, I’ll wager that you are paying the price for failed immigration policies. At the end of the day, who pays? We are the ones who pay. You can see that immigration policy affects our economy directly, not dealing with immigration creates higher costs for all of us on a day-to-day basis. We must press our elected leaders to do better. As of this day, I humbly tell you that they’ve let us down. Until we elect better leaders, I fully support executive action from President Biden including humanitarian parole and work authorizations which will lessen pressure on our overheated labor markets.”
Bob Mong, President, UNT Dallas:
“As a university president, I’m obviously not a politician but I recognize and appreciat the importance of seeking solutions to the issues surrounding immigration. UNT Dallas is a growing urban university that serves mostly first-generation students coming from low to modest household incomes, more than 50 percent of whom are Hispanic. Our graduates stay in North Texas, filling high need jobs in health care, bilingual education, law enforcement, mental health counseling, accountants and the law. Our students keep close to this market and help close labor shortages in an area desperately needing the diversity and the bilingual students that we produce. Given that Texas has nearly 800,000 immigrants in key sectors of manufacturing, education, health care and other fields, our student contributions are both meaningful and important to our economy. Our student body includes many DACA students and other Dreamers. DACA students have led our student government and been our graduation speaker. A DACA student was the first graduate of this university to attend an Ivy League graduate school and is now back in Texas working at a high level six-figure job in health care and about to begin doctoral studies. UNT Dallas is relentless in our pursuit of opening doors and creating pathways for our students, including our Dreamers. We have the second-largest number of students on dream.us scholarships, behind the University of Houston. These are outstanding students who deserve permanency in the citizenship status. We appreciate our Dreamers and look forward to continuing contributions to our university community and to the community at large. There is no question that expanding work authorization benefits these hard-working Dreamers. It’s the right thing to do and it keeps our economy growing stronger.”
Rick Ortiz, President and CEO, Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce:
“”It is disheartening that over 575,000 North Texans cannot work legally, despite their significant economic contributions. They pay $1.3 billion in taxes and have a spending power of $10.2 billion. Expanding work authorization for undocumented workers is crucial to address workforce challenges, keep families together and promote economic prosperity. We urge elected officials to join us in calling on President Biden to prioritize this issue and provide work authorization for undocumented workers.”
Lilyan Prado, Director, North Texas LULAC District III, business owner and only Latina candidate for Denton City Council. She was a former undocumented student from Guatemala and after legalizing status, obtained a master’s degree in public administration:
“The impact that people like me is humongous, both economically and culturally.. We are asking for work authorization and a pathway to residency for thousands of people who are constantly contributing every day to the life that we live here in the United States. There are so many students that need for us to advocate for them and to keep families together.”
Oscar Silva, president of UNT Eagle Dreamers and Dreamer who does not qualify for DACA. Without a work permit, he is unable to utilize his education: two degrees in math and economics and future graduate student:
“Today, I’m on track to finish my undergrad journey by May of 2024. Without a work permit in sight, I plan to start my master’s degree in the summer, extending myself time until our federal government creates a solution. The uncertainty of it all has left me in a state of constant stress and fear for the reality I’ll likely have to face one day. I urge President Biden to please extend work authorization opportunities for Dreamers like me who were too young to qualify for DACA.”
Genoveva Castellanos, member of Texas Organizing Project and long-term Mexican immigrant living in the U.S. for 24 years:
“I think it is unfair that other recently arrived migrants have the opportunity to work legally and I do not, when I have been in this country for 24 years paying taxes. If I had access to a work permit and social security, I would continue my career as a chef, have a better income and be a greater contributor to society and the economy. I want President Biden to remember that a large part of the Mexican American community helped him become president in 2020 and he will need us this year if he wants to remain in office.”
Marisa Bono, CEO, Every Texan:
“While immigration is and should be framed as a humanitarian issue, it’s also coming through loud and clear that it’s also an economic issue. The value of imigrant labor to the economies of Texas and North Texas are indisputable. Immigrants of working age make up 22 percent of both the workforce and the labor force in Texas. They are a boon to our economy and workforce and expanding work authorization would hypercharge our continued economic growth in Texas.”
Ms. Bono emphasized the following key points from Every Texan’s 2022 report, Celebrating a Decade of DACA in Texas:
- The 101,340 currently active Texan DACA recipients have a collective spending power of $3.7 billion in our state
- Texas DACA recipients annually contribute $782.7 million in federal taxes and $436.8 million in state and local taxes
- In the Dallas/Fort Worth area, there are about 33,000 DACA recipients who pay almost $140 million dollars in state and loca taxes
- DACA eligible Texans are unable to work lawfully. Less than half of the 208,000 DACA eligible Texans actually have DACA active status.
“Most of our current generation of our undocumented youth are not even eligible for DACA. This is why expanding work authorization is so critical. We all lose if we aren’t doing everything we can to integrate hard-working taxpaying members into our communities. Frankly, the numbers don’t lie. Expanding parole is nothing short of an investment in our future here in Texas.”
BACKGROUND:
Texas continues to face significant workforce shortages, with just 80 workers available for every 100 open jobs. Meanwhile, over 575,000 North Texans cannot work legally, despite paying $1.3 billion in taxes and wielding a spending power of $10.2 billion. Business leaders, small business owners, mixed-status families, Dreamers, faith leaders, and educators are encouraging Congress and President Biden to expand work authorization and address our region’s workforce challenges, keep North Texas families together, and enhance economic prosperity and opportunities for all North Texans.
Immigrants already make vital contributions to Texas’ economy and communities. Key facts:
- Immigrants comprised 17.1 percent of Texas’ population (nearly five million people) in 2019 and made up 22% of the state’s workforce, including 28.3 percent of all manufacturing workers
- They are also a key part of filling our critical teacher shortage
- Texas immigrants paid $38.4 billion in taxes and wield $122.6 billion in spending power, as of August 2023, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
In addition to Texas, the U.S. economy depends upon a foreign-born labor force to alleviate national labor shortages, reduce inflation, and grow by $7 trillion more over the next decade. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, we currently have 9.5 million job openings in the U.S., but only 6.6 million unemployed workers. Even if every unemployed person in the country found a job, we would still have nearly 3 million open jobs across the United States.
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