Serafy: Uncertainty for Dreamers is costing my business and the Texas economy

[TexasTowelie]

The above guest column was penned by Nick Serafy, CEO of Proficiency Testing Service, Inc. in Brownsville and a member of the Texas Opportunity Coalition. The TOC unites businesses, institutions, executives, and leaders from across Texas who are dedicated to passing a federal congressional DREAM (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Act that provides permanent legal status to Dreamers. The column appears in The Rio Grande Guardian with the permission of the author. Serafy can be reached by email via: [e-mail].


“Juan” was a bright young man who started working for my company as a packaging logistics clerk right out of high school, earning money to help his family and to pay for college. He caught on quickly and soon became one of the most efficient members of my team. I called him in to discuss a promotion.

That was when he told me something I didn’t expect: he couldn’t accept our offer because of the uncertain future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which was allowing him to work for us legally. In fact, he was getting ready to leave Brownsville and Texas altogether so that, in the event the government were to end DACA — something the Trump administration tried to do twice — he wouldn’t be anywhere near the border.

I was taken aback. As someone who has been involved in immigration policy for three decades, I had closely followed the fate of the DACA program, which lets young people who were brought to the U.S. before 2012 work and study here so long as they obey our laws and pay their taxes. But I had no idea that one of my employees was a DACA recipient.

Businesses like ours are yet another victim of the federal government’s repeated failure to enact a legislative solution to resolve the uncertainty around Dreamers’ status. We thought Juan would have a long-term career at our company. Even if he didn’t stay with us forever, he would have gained skills that he could have taken with him to strengthen Texas’s workforce.

Read more: https://riograndeguardian.com/serafy-uncertainty-for-dreamers-is-costing-my-business-and-the-texas-economy/