Advocates say expanding work permits to undocumented people in America will boost the economy

As the Texas economy booms and thousands of jobs are created each month, employers continue to face labor shortages. There are not enough workers to fill the jobs needed to support the expected growth in Texas.

According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, there are 774,000 job openings in Texas and only 80 workers for every 100 job openings. There are 9.5 million job openings in the United States and only 6.6 million unemployed.

But there is a solution to America's labor problem, Texas-based immigration reform advocates said Friday. They contend that state and national labor shortages could be reduced if the Biden administration allowed the country's longtime undocumented residents to legally enter the workforce. He has already done this for more than a million newly arrived immigrants since 2021.

“We are calling on the government to expand work authorization to long-term immigrants who do the backbreaking work that benefits us all,” said Juan Carlos Cerda, Texas state director of the American Business Immigration Coalition Action.

The president has used a humanitarian immigration clause in federal law to extend temporary protected status at a historic rate, welcoming hundreds of thousands of immigrants fleeing conflicts in Ukraine and Afghanistan and unrest in countries like Venezuela and Haiti. This allows them to apply for a work permit.

It's a quick offer to stabilize the United States that undocumented people have long hoped would be offered to them.

Related: FBI agents increasing immigration and visa fees starting in April

North Texas community and business leaders met Friday looking for solutions to boost the state's economy, address labor shortages and keep immigrant families together.

A future without job opportunities in the United States has pushed Oscar Silva back to school.

He came to the U.S. from Mexico at age two and didn't understand until his teens that his lack of documentation excluded him from milestones like getting a driver's license or a summer internship. He did not receive Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status or DACA status before it was repealed in 2017.

When he completed his bachelor's degree at the University of North Texas, he realized he couldn't use it without a work permit. That's why he's enrolling in a master's degree in economics starting this summer.

“Everything is still the same,” said Silva. “Nothing has progressed. There is no way for me to use any of these degrees.”

Silva doesn't know what will be possible for him and other young undocumented people in the future.

“I'm just buying time for Congress to get the president or someone to do something about it,” Silva said.

It is estimated that there are well over half a million undocumented immigrants throughout North Texas. That's according to 2017 figures from New American Economy, a nonprofit nonpartisan immigration research group.

Related: Organizations are calling for relief for undocumented workers, including in food service and hospitality

Without a skilled workforce, Texas employers like Adam Lampert saw costs rise, which in turn led to higher prices for his customers. The head of Cambridge Caregivers, a Dallas-Fort Worth home health service where about 80% of employees are foreign-born, said the tight labor situation has led to rates nearly 30% higher than the company charged five years ago.

“I bet you’re paying the price for failed immigration policy,” Lampert said. “You can see that immigration policy directly affects our economy. If we don’t address immigration, we will all incur higher costs every day.”

Rick Ortiz, president and CEO of the Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said the group's members across industries have reported large gaps in unfilled jobs in sectors with high proportions of immigrant workers, including landscaping, manufacturing and services.

“Several of our members have expressed the need for change and the ability to employ many of these undocumented workers who live here,” Ortiz said.

The seasonally adjusted number of jobs in Texas increased by 18,900 in January, increasing the state's employment base to 14,053,400.

“Texas continues to lead the nation in job growth and economic stability,” said Bryan Daniel, chairman of the Texas Workforce Commission. “As we move into 2024, Texas’ workforce continues to upskill and become the workforce of tomorrow.”

If immigration were to return to pre-pandemic levels, job growth would have to be significantly lower, wage pressures would have to be higher and labor markets would have to be significantly tighter, according to Pia Orrenius, chief economist at the Dallas Fed.

With baby boomers retiring, the aging U.S. workforce and the declining birth rate, all growth in the U.S. workforce after 2040 is likely to come from immigration, Orrenius said at an economic forecasting event in February.

“We know that the American economy benefits from this [humanitarian immigration] programs because they are currently addressing the labor shortage,” Cerda said.