Immigrants key to Texas’ economic recovery
Here in Texas, we know how to recover from a catastrophe. In the two years following the 2008-09 recession, 40 percent of net jobs created in the United States were in our state. Today, with a daunting economic crisis on top of a devastating global pandemic, we face unprecedented challenges. But with proper leadership and smart, businessfriendly policies, we can emerge prosperous.
Economic recovery will require the creation of new jobs, the ability to fill open positions and industry-wide innovation. To do this, we must attract and retain a talented workforce. This is why as chamber leaders, representing the state’s eight largest business sectors and serving more than 20,000 companies, we are concerned about the Trump administration’s recent executive order that suspended guest worker visas, including H-1B visas for high-skilled workers, H-2Bs for non-agricultural seasonal workers, and J1 visas for international students. The White House believes the order will boost employment for U.S. workers; instead, it will do the opposite and undermine our state’s recovery.
The visa holders targeted by the order are key to job growth. Every H-1B visa holder creates 1.83 American jobs, according to analysis from New American Economy. This means a one-year freeze on these visas could result in a loss of 155,550 U.S. jobs. Texas has a thriving science and tech industry, with some of the world’s top universities and researchers working on cutting-edge medical innovations, including COVID-19 vaccines. Yet we still struggle to fill open positions in STEM fields. For every unemployed STEM worker in Texas, there were 13 STEM jobs advertised online in 2016, according to NAE. The situation has not improved much since then.
Foreign-born workers are vital to our communities. Immigrants make up nearly 27 percent of our state’s STEM workers. For example, Dell Technologies is one of Austin’s largest tech employers, and it relies on H-1B visas to fill positions in areas like in cybersecurity and software development. And between 2010 and 2016, more H-1B visas were issued in Dallas-Fort Worth than Silicon Valley, according to Pew Research Center. To qualify for the H-1B visa program, employers must demonstrate that they cannot fill the position with anyone else in the country. That means they have looked for U.S. workers and come up short. Certain positions are particularly challenging: A study by ManpowerGroup found that 82 percent of employers struggled to fill engineering positions. Entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk of SpaceX, Satya Nadella of Microsoft and Mike Krieger of Instagram once used H-1B visas to work in the U.S. How many jobs might we have lost if we had not allowed them into the country?
In addition to the recent executive order, the Trump administration has also announced it will continue its pursuit to shut down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, after its initial attempt was blocked by the Supreme Court. DACA gives legal protections to 100,000 young adults in Texas, thousands of whom are classified as essential workers. We will rely on these young adults even more as we work to revitalize our cities in the coming months.
All of these policy measures hurt Texas and keep the United States from staying competitive in the global economy. We urge President Donald Trump and Congress to focus on comprehensive immigration reform that will lead to a robust and sustainable workforce for our state. Without access to qualified employees, companies will look to hire remote workers abroad and will not see
Texas as a place to invest. We need to be forward-thinking as we navigate this challenging time, and that means prioritizing smart immigration policy. By doing so, we will emerge from this downturn the Texas way: stronger and more resilient than ever.
Huffman is president and CEO of the Austin Chamber of Commerce, speaking on behalf of the Metro 8 Chambers. This op-ed represents the views from the chambers representing the eight largest metro areas in Texas: The Greater Arlington Chamber of Commerce, Austin Chamber of Commerce, United Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce, Dallas Regional Chamber, El Paso Chamber of Commerce, Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, Greater Houston Partnership, and San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.