Forty-five Texas business leaders and I signed on to a letter to Senators Cornyn and Cruz asking them to pass a legislative solution to protect Dreamers from deportation before the Supreme Court rules on the DACA case in the first half of 2020. You can read about some of the numerous economic benefits of such a policy in the letter authored by the Texas Business Immigration Coalition and see its signatories below.
Please continue to contact your lawmakers and ask them to work on passing sensible immigration policy.
God bless you, and may He continue to bless America.
Dear Senator Cornyn and Senator Cruz:
The Texas Business Immigration Coalition is an organization of business leaders pursuing bipartisan, common-sense solutions for our immigration system, including the expansion of high- and low-skilled visa programs and a pathway to legal status and citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the US. We the undersigned represent a variety of industries, including technology, hospitality, construction, and agriculture.
At this time, the most urgent need is a permanent solution for “Dreamers,” young adults without legal status who were brought to the US as children. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program provides work authorization and protection from deportation to Dreamers who meet certain qualifications. The Supreme Court is expected to reach a decision on the continuation of this program in the spring of 2020. If the Supreme Court rules that the DACA program can be terminated, 115,290 Texas DACA recipients will lose their ability to work and become deportable.
Studies by economists across the ideological spectrum have determined that if DACA recipients lose their ability to work legally, the Texas economy could lose $6 billion in GDP annually and the federal government could lose $90 billion in tax revenue. Thus, congressional inaction following a Supreme Court decision would cause significant negative economic and social effects on businesses and hundreds of thousands of deserving young people across the state.
In addition to existing DACA recipients, there are 226,195 DACA-eligible Dreamers in Texas, earning $3 billion in income and paying $473.3 million in local, state, and federal taxes. Every year, 17,000 Dreamers graduate from Texas high schools; many of these Dreamers were too young to apply for DACA or could not afford the fees to apply before the Trump administration rescinded the program in 2017. Dreamers without DACA will be ineligible for legal employment when they graduate from high school and college. Their education, which our state has invested in, would go to waste.
We have seen that 64% of Republican and 90% of Democratic voters nationwide support citizenship for Dreamers. We thus urge you to take advantage of this opportunity to earn the support of the American electorate on an issue that has remained unresolved for decades and prevented our nation from realizing its full potential. Texas employers and hundreds of thousands of Dreamers are counting on you to pass existing legislative proposals without further delay.
Respectfully,
Adam Lampert, CEO, Manchester Care Homes
Al Flores, General Counsel & Senior Vice President, Gringo's Tex-Mex
Alberto Garcia, CEO, Uniformity
Alfredo Duarte, President & CEO, Taxco Produce, Inc.
Beth Bowman, President & CEO, Irving-Las Colinas Chamber of Commerce
Brad Todd, Former Principal, The Richards Group
Brenda Haupt, Owner & COO, Globe Products
Bryan Braswell, President, Braswell Custom Homes
Chris Wallace, President & CEO, North Texas Commission
Christopher Aslam, CEO, Rock Strategic
Dale Petroskey, President & CEO, Dallas Regional Chamber
Daniel Chu, CEO, Tricolor Auto Group
Daniel Rosandich, Owner, Tree Service by Dan
Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO, Uber
David Pfaff, CEO, Plastronics
Diana Flores, Board of Trustees Chair, Dallas County Community College District
Diane S. Sanchez, President & CEO, San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Don Cumming, General Manager, Flex-N-Gate Texas LLC
Douglas Mumme, CEO, PDQ Staffing Inc.
Jaime Jacob & Courtney Balderas-Jacob, Owners, FLOAT
Jeff Moseley, President & CEO, Texas Association of Business
Jim Baron, CEO, Mesa Southwest Management
Joe Estelle, General Contractor, GSI Construction
John Stautner, CEO, ETSZONE
Juan Carlos Gonzalez, Immediate Past Chairman, Irving Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Kate Gruy Jaceldo, Owner, Compost Queens
Kelle Marsalis, President & CEO, Plano Chamber of Commerce
Ken Malcolmson, President & CEO, North Dallas Chamber of Commerce
Krystelle Anaya, Owner, Trawood Family Dental
Laura Sanchez, President, El Ranchito and La Calle Doce Restaurants
María Santi, Director of Minority Outreach, Grand Prairie Chamber of Commerce
Mariano Martinez, CEO, MRI, Inc.
Mary Ann Kellam, President & CEO, Irving Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Massey Villarreal, President & CEO, Precision Task Group Inc.
Mike Barillet, Owner, Valkyrie Vapor Shop
Nneka S. Achapu, Executive Director & CEO, US Bilateral African Chamber of Commerce
Noe Neaves, Chief Operating Officer, Watermark Power Solutions, Inc.
Norman Adams, Co-Founder, Texans for Sensible Immigration Policy
Pete Lerma, Principal & Founder, Richards/Lerma
Ramon Romero, Owner, A-Fast Tile, Stone & Coping
Randall White, President, Elettore
Richard Spies, CEO, Lucid IQ
Rick Ortiz, President & CEO, Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Ryan Kline, CEO, Motionloft
Stan Marek, Chairman & CEO, MAREK
Suzanne Chen, President, Greater Dallas Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce