Texas advocates for immigration workforce reform and DACA are now back from Washington D.C. with optimism for change after talking with federal lawmakers.
Immigration workforce reform:
Adam Lampert is CEO of Cambridge Caregivers and Manchester Care Homes located in the Dallas metropolitan area.
He said around 80% of his 350 staff members are foreign-born.
“I was shocked — not often do you go to Washington D.C. and get such agreement from both sides of the aisle," Lampert said.
"We met with (members of congress) both democrats and republicans and there was broad universal agreement that immigration policy needs to be changed.”
"Our message to congressmen and congresswomen was that we need to secure the border and we need to secure the workforce and everyone agreed."
He was one of over 140 CEOs and business leaders part of the American Business Immigration Coalition's campaign called "Secure America's Workforce” that went to Washington D.C. this week to meet with members of Congress advocating for immigrants in our workforce and a secure border.
Adam told 25News' Bobby Poitevint Thursday following his time with congress, “and the sense was as soon as — the border has been secured then there will be focus on all of these immigration issues but not until then but my sense is I’m very optimistic.”
Juan Carlos Cerda is the Texas State Director for the American Business Immigration Coalition and he also went to Capitol Hill this week.
"We come back from Washington optimistic that there will be a possibility of reforming our immigration workforce system and securing our border after President Trump cuts taxes and raises the debt ceiling," Cerda said.
Juan said there was over 115 meetings over the two days in Washington D.C. with law makers including 16 Texas members of congress.
“We successfully delivered a letter signed by close to 100 CEOs and business leaders across the country — and we’re seeking to grow this movement to over a thousand CEOs and employers across the nation supporting immigration and border solutions and the idea is to again approach law makers in the August recess when law makers are back in their home districts and to again go to D.C. by September or October," he added.
On Monday, he told Bobby,border security will be in the budget reconciliation bill and that they’re asking members of Congress to add work permits for longtime residents. On Thursday, Juan said “It’s absolutely a possibility" following conversations with lawmakers this week.
Adam is a strong advocate for immigration reform and said time is of the essence for change and he plans to have more one-on-one conversations with state leaders.
“Our industry is nothing but growing. We’re going to need a million caregivers a year to manage the baby boomers that are coming through the system," he said.
"We need a million caregivers — over 700,000 health aid workers and 200,000 nurses every year to fill the void and to fill the growth in our industry, so this work shortage is just gonna hurt us moving forward."
"Most people don’t know that when these laws were created — the current immigration legislation in 1990 — the size of our economy was 6-trillion dollars" he said.
"Today it’s $30 trillion dollars — our economy has grown five-times but the caps on the number of guest workers we can have in our country to come do the work that Americans want to have done — hasn’t changed."
"That’s a huge disconnect and so most people understand that we simply don’t have enough visas and that’s what we need to focus on — members of congress "totally understand the value of immigrants in our workforce."
DACA:
Juan is a husband and one of 89,000 DACA or Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals recipients in Texas.
"I came when I was three and I depend on this work authorization every two years to pay my bills and my mortgage here in Texas — I’m optimistic because I know that law makers are sympathetic.”
We’ve shared his story before and his office — the American Business immigration Coalition — said fighting for DACA is a top priority for them.
He said, DACA was part of the conversations during their visit to Washington D.C. this week.
“There is an implicit recognition that at some point congress will have to address this issue," he said.
Juan also says midterm elections approach next year, the U.S. Supreme Courts reviewing the federal program and the potential for DACA ending looms.
“Both republican and democratic offices recognize that and so we have to go back and have this conversation again in August because by that time there might be more news about DACA," Juan said.
Ending the program would impact around half a million people with the fear of them not only losing protections from being deported and losing work authorizations here in the United States but some experts estimating billions in economic loss to our economy.
Juan said House judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan said he wants to have hearings on reforming visa programs including H-1B, H-2B and solutions to DACA but for now, Juan really encourages recipients to renew their DACA as soon as you can.
“We can not lose these workers because they will raise prices and make goods and services harder to get," the DACA recipient himself said on Thursday.
DACA was first created under the Obama administration.
Opponents to DACA say the program rewards illegal immigrants and it’s faced uncertainty and uphill battles in courts since President Trump’s first term in office.
We will continue to monitor the program to see what happens next.
