Texas Border Business
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Texas Border Business
On June 19, 2025, U.S. Representative Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX) sent an official letter to President Donald J. Trump urging him to issue an executive order that would allow small businesses to sponsor undocumented workers under specified conditions. Gonzalez’s proposal, intended to ease the labor shortages in critical sectors of the U.S. economy, was accompanied by a video link of President Trump acknowledging these shortages during a visit to Alligator Alcatraz in Florida.
In the letter addressed to the White House, Gonzalez wrote, “I write to request you issue an executive order to protect American businesses by ensuring their workforce can continue to live and work without fear in our great nation.” He emphasized the growing impact of immigration enforcement actions on industries including agriculture, hospitality, manufacturing, and construction.
According to Gonzalez, ICE raids and mass deportation policies threaten to remove millions of workers from the economy: “1.5 million workers from the construction workforce; 224,700 workers from the agriculture industry; 1 million workers in the hospitality industry… and 870,400 workers in manufacturing,” he stated, referencing current estimates. He warned that “the true impact on our economy could be significantly higher” due to the difficulty in accurately measuring undocumented labor.
The congressman also cited economic studies to stress the broader consequences of losing this labor force. “According to the non-partisan American Immigration Council, the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) could lose 4.2 percent to 6.8 percent… or $1.1 trillion to $1.7 trillion in 2022 dollars,” he noted. He further explained that “in 2022, undocumented immigrants paid $22.6 billion to Social Security and $5.7 billion to Medicare,” payments that are increasingly vital as the population ages.
While acknowledging the administration’s recent directive to scale back raids on certain businesses, Gonzalez expressed concern that it “may not be enough,” especially as enforcement activity has reportedly resumed in other sectors. “Without this pause, major housing and business developments will remain at a standstill,” he warned, adding that migrants already “fear leaving their home for risk of being apprehended by ICE.”
In his proposal, Gonzalez called for an executive order to create a system allowing small businesses to sponsor undocumented migrants who have lived in the U.S. for at least three years and have no criminal record. This would grant them “temporary lawful status on a yearly basis,” allowing them to work and pay taxes legally. “This is a commonsense solution that moves the needle forward,” he wrote, “and helps struggling American businesses prosper while creating a temporary path for those who want to contribute.”
The congressman cited comments made by President Trump during his visit to Florida to support the need for action. In the video included with Gonzalez’s letter, Trump acknowledged the essential role of undocumented workers in the agriculture and hospitality sectors. “We have a case where a lot of cases where ICE will go into a farm, and these are guys working there for 10, 15 years, no problem,” Trump said. “We’re gonna give them responsibility for people and we’re gonna have a system of signing them up so they don’t have to go.”
Trump explicitly distanced the proposal from a pathway to citizenship but emphasized legal work authorization. “They’re not getting citizenship, but they get other things… they can be here legally, they can pay taxes,” he said. He also recalled past immigration crackdowns that led to widespread farm bankruptcies: “They had nobody to work. And we don’t want to have that situation.”
In a separate clip, Trump reiterated his intent to protect American agriculture. “We need to get our farmers the people they need, otherwise our farmers aren’t gonna be able to do their land,” he said, suggesting a “form of a card or document” that would hold employers responsible for the legal status of their long-term workers.
Gonzalez’s appeal comes at a time of growing bipartisan recognition of the challenges posed by current immigration laws. “Both parties know our current immigration system is broken,” he stated in closing. “Together we can work to protect American businesses and grow our workforce.”
Copy of the Letter to President Donald J. Trump:
