Bipartisan call made for immigrant work permits
US Senate candidate from Texas, Republican megadonor write op-ed
AUSTIN, Texas – U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, the Democratic nominee for one of Texas’ U.S. Senate seats, has teamed up with Republican megadonor Woody Hunt to urge President Joe Biden and congressional leaders to expand work permits for people seeking to enter the United States to reunite with their families and for undocumented immigrants with a history of working in the country.
In a jointly authored op-ed published Sunday in The Dallas Morning News, Allred of Dallas and Hunt of El Paso said that allowing more immigrants the opportunity to work legally in the United States would help ease what they described as a critical shortage of available workers and would help reunite families in which some members have permission to be in the country and others do not.
“The right thing to do by Texas families is also the right thing to do by Texas businesses, and neither can afford to wait any longer,” they wrote. “Allowing someone who has worked and paid taxes here for decades – someone who is raising a family here – to legally work, earn a living and help our economy is a boon for their family and for employers.”
In their op-ed, Hunt and Allred said more than “3 million U.S. citizens in Texas live with someone who is undocumented, such as a spouse or a parent.”
“We also know that nearly two out of three undocumented Texans (64%) have been contributing to their communities
In their op-ed, Hunt and Allred said more than “3 million U.S. citizens in Texas live with someone who is undocumented, such as a spouse or a parent.”
here for more than a decade,” they said. “They are critical to our economy and our competitiveness, paying $4 billion in taxes and wielding a spending power of $33.9 billion.”
Allred is running to unseat U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a two-term Republican, in the Nov. 5 election. Hunt is the senior board chairman of the Hunt Cos., vice chair of the Council on Regional Economic Expansion and Educational Development in El Paso, and treasurer of the American Business Immigration Coalition. He is also a supporter of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the immigration initiative started under thenPresident Barack Obama.
In a briefing last month by the immigration coalition, Hunt said expanding work opportunities for immigrants is “politically smart and morally right.”
“We don’t have enough workers to fill the jobs we have. If we want to keep this economic engine turning, the business community needs the president to act and for Congress to help us find more legal workers,” he said.
Immigration and border security are among the most emotional issues of the 2024 election cycle.
Allred, after voting for the ill-fated legislation that would have added more than 1,500 new Customs and Border Protection agents and about 4,300 asylum officers to aid in the effort to address unlawful immigration, said politics is getting in the way of addressing the immigration issue.
“And I am sick and tired of politicians talking about the problem, about the crisis we are experiencing at our border, but being unwilling to actually solve it,” he said in a news release.