A prominent Texas economist says the state's economic future pay rest on the U.S. Supreme Court upholding Deferred Adjudication for Childhood Arrivals, which is being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court today, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Recipients of the DACA program, young people who came to the U.S. with their illegal immigrant parents and who were allowed to legally remain and work in the country by the executive order from President Obama in 2012. President Trump says that executive order was illegal and he wants the high court to throw out it, which could lead to the deportation of DACA recipients.
Economist Ray Perryman says there are 110,000 DACA recipients now holding jobs in Texas. He says they run the gamut from skilled trades like construction workers and plumbers, to highly paid positions in tech and medicine. Regardless, he points out that with unemployment in Texas close to an all time low, and more companies saying that an inability to hire skilled people is their number one barrier to expansion, that number of workers is significant to the economy.
"What you add the multiplier effects of these types of jobs, plus all of the other things they day, these people contribute about $25 billion to our state's economy each year," he said.
He said losing more than 100,000 employees to deportation would devastate industries, drive companies into bankruptcy, and make the Texas economy less competitive overnight.
"They are a very important part of our work force, and right now, Texas has a shortage of every type of worker," he said. "We need everything from doctors to people who clean rooms at hotels."
Opponents of DACA say the 'Dreamers' are a burden on the states. But Peryman says the young migrants pay more than enough in texas to outweigh any possible costs.