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Immigration reform activists hold a rally in Washington earlier this year. A poll indicates most Texas voters of every political stripe think the nation's immigration laws are not working.

Immigration reform activists hold a rally in Washington earlier this year. A poll indicates most Texas voters of every political stripe think the nation's immigration laws are not working.

Houston Chronicle columnist Chris Tomlinson.

Houston Chronicle columnist Chris Tomlinson.

Texas businesses need immigration reform now

The legal entanglements of 50,000 children entering the United States illegally this summer may have highlighted our broken immigration system, but Texas businesses are warning that Congress' failure to pass comprehensive immigration reforms could create a bigger long-term economic crisis.

Leaders in Houston's manufacturing, construction and agriculture industries joined colleagues in 40 other cities across the country last week to complain that federal immigration law has left them without enough workers and that the market favors the unscrupulous. They want comprehensive immigration reform now.

"This is about the economy, jobs and a strong workforce for Texas," said Nelson Salinas, lobbyist with the Texas Association of Business, which promotes pro-business policies.

Richie Jackson, CEO of the Texas Restaurant Association, said the current immigration system doesn't work for anybody. In the oil and gas boom areas of South and West Texas, restaurants can't open to full capacity because they don't have enough workers.

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"We need to be able to access both high-skill and low-skill workers in this booming economy," he said. "When we can't get our lower-skilled, but essential workers, we can't open the restaurants, we can't expand, we can't meet customer needs."

The Republican Party of Texas hurt efforts to ease the economic stress by removing the so-called "Texas Solution" from its platform last month. Instead of supporting a guest worker program to bring in legal workers, party delegates instead demanded that local police round up those in the country illegally and called for the denial of in-state tuition for kids who grew up here without papers.

The most common demand in return for reforms is a sealed border, but that's a paper tiger.

The only border that comes close to being sealed is the 160-mile demilitarized zone on the Korean Peninsula, and that is hardly a model for the 1,933-mile U.S.-Mexico border. I've driven along most of the Texas border with Mexico, and building a Berlin Wall along it is impossible, and frankly silly.

There will always be some leaks. The question is, how much of a reduction in illegal crossings will it take for Republicans in Congress to deal with the much larger humanitarian and economic crises caused by our bad laws? Illegal border crossings are at the lowest level in the last decade.

Few applicants

While we wait on Congress, the booming Texas economy could stumble for lack of labor.

Kelli Vazquez, vice president at a concrete cutting and demolition company called Holes Inc., said her Houston company runs background checks on every employee and gets only a handful of applicants for every opening.

"When we put up an ad, we want to see more people come and apply," Vazquez said. "We're a small company. We would never look abroad to bring workers over, but if there was an easier process for people to come over legally and work, it would help the construction industry."

Companies that follow the rules want a chance to compete for the skilled labor of the millions of people who are working in the country illegally, said Bob Bacon, CFO of Houston-based TAS Commercial Concrete Construction.

'Level playing field'

"If we are able to hire them, as we do all of our employees, through the legal process, we're going to withhold taxes and Social Security, we're going to pay workers' compensation," he said. "It will be a level playing field."

Labor agrees with management in this case. Texas AFL-CIO President Becky Moeller praised Texas businesses for supporting a comprehensive immigration bill.

"To address the crisis at hand, the legislative process needs to continue and the political process needs to take a back seat," she said.

A new poll indicates that business leaders aren't the only ones frustrated by inaction in Washington.

More than 80 percent of Texas voters of every political stripe think the nation's immigration laws are not working and that Congress needs to take action, according to a survey of 1,000 people last month on behalf of the Partnership for a New Economy, a bipartisan, pro-business lobbying group.

When it comes to exactly what policy Texans support, opinions vary. But 61 percent said they would support comprehensive reforms that include additional border protections, visas for workers with needed skills, an employer verification program, work permits for those already in the country and citizenship for those brought here as children.

Blockade in House

The U.S. Senate has passed a plan that includes all of those elements. The only majority in the nation that seems opposed to comprehensive immigration reform is the one in the House of Representatives.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, in April openly mocked the Republican caucus' reluctance to take a vote.

"Here's the attitude: 'Ohhhh. Don't make me do this. Ohhhh. This is too hard,'" he said. Incumbents were worried about taking votes that could hurt them with tea party primary voters.

Perhaps once the Republican primaries are over, and most incumbents are assured their re-election, the business community can get the relief it needs to keep the economy humming.

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Texas businesses need immigration reform now - Houston Chronicle