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Yolanda Batz walked across the stage at her University of Houston graduation in May and entered a future of uncertainty.
Equipped with a new nursing degree, the 22-year-old longtime Texas resident has no way to put her skills to use. She is undocumented with no current pathway to citizenship or legal work authorization.
“It's been difficult, because I know that I could be applying to everything and maybe have a job already,” said Batz, who migrated from Guatemala with her parents and younger sister at age 3. “It definitely is a loss of potential, because I see myself as American.”
Batz is one of an estimated 577,000 Houston-area residents who are unauthorized, meaning they have no legal status or have a temporary status such as Temporary Protected Status. Providing work authorization to these longtime residents is widely supported, but has been stalled in recent years by political polarization around immigration reform. Now, Houston leaders are calling on President Joe Biden to use his executive power to issue work permits to immigrants who have been in the country for years, including students, people who came to the U.S. as kids, and spouses of U.S. citizens.
“We need President Biden to deliver on those promises and remember that beyond economic impact, this is humanity. These are people's lives that are friends, our family, our relatives,” said Chris McCarthy, chief of staff for Congresswoman Sylvia R. Garcia. “These are people that want to succeed and be a part of our community.”
McCarthy and other leaders, including Houston Hispanic Chamber President and CEO Laura Murillo and Commissioner Adrian Garcia, spoke on a panel last week that discussed work authorization for migrant workers and the potential impact on Houston’s economy.
More than 150 elected representatives, including nine Houston representatives, urged the administration to move swiftly on these work authorization issues in a May letter. As Biden enters the last months of his term, advocates are hopeful he will expand work authorization programs. The president has been considering opening a pathway for spouses of U.S. citizens to receive work permits, Reuters reported in April. His administration has also tried to restore the DACA program - albeit unsuccessfully.
Economic benefits
Making work permits available should be a no-brainer for Houston residents and businesses, legislators and business leaders said at the Rice University panel.
“It is indisputable that this population has been paying taxes and contributing to our economy for decades while withdrawing from our respective governments far less than they contribute,” said keynote speaker, Harris County Commissioner Adrian Garcia. “Just imagine how much more they could contribute if they had reasonable access to work authorization.”
Laura Murillo, president and CEO of the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, stressed that Houston businesses need immigrant workers.
“For businesses, the biggest factor right now is trying to find employees. We get calls every day from small businesses to large corporations,” said Murillo. “We are here. We have the demographic to fill those jobs.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has denied that immigrants have a positive impact on the economy.
“Texas is decreasing illegal immigration while at the very same time adding more jobs and growing our economy far faster than the entire country,” he said in April.
Yet Texas only has 80 workers for every 100 open jobs, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Health care is one of the major industries affected. By 2032, the Gulf Coast region is expected to have the biggest unmet demand in the state for nurses at more than 40 percent, according to data from the Texas Health and Human Services.
From Guatemala to Houston
With work authorization, Batz could help fill this worker shortage. The 22-year-old has grown up like many of her peers in Houston, taking trips to Discovery Green Park and eating at Carrabba’s with her family on special occasions. The only difference is that she immigrated with her parents from the Indigenous Mayan community Totonicapán in Guatemala’s western highlands in 2005 when her parents couldn’t find well-paying work.
Because of the age she came to the U.S., Batz could qualify at age 15 for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program launched by former President Barack Obama in 2012. An estimated 29,400 Houstonians have DACA, the fourth-largest DACA population in the county, according to U.S. government data. But the program has been in limbo since the Trump administration tried to end it in September 2017.
When Batz turned 15 in February 2017, while applications were still open, her parents cautioned her against applying for DACA because of fears of providing the Trump administration with so much personal information. When the Trump administration decided to end the program, new applications then closed as courts decided its fate.
When a judge ruled that the administration must accept new applications in 2020, Batz jumped at the chance. She filed an application, only to have the process halted in 2021 when a judge ruled the program is illegal. Current DACA recipients can keep their status while the case makes its way through the appeals process, but more than 1.1 million eligible people nationwide, including Batz, can’t currently receive protections.
Despite the setback, Batz decided to forge on with her nursing degree, fueled by her experiences translating doctors’ appointments for her mom when she was as young as five. One day, she hopes to run her own bilingual clinic providing care to underserved rural Texans.
At times during college, her goal seemed within reach. She received a scholarship for Houston nursing students, conducted research on dementia, and volunteered as a translator at a clinic. But other times, doors slammed in her face. Internships turned her away because she didn’t have work authorization. When the university planned a trip to her home country to work in a clinic, she couldn’t go.
When she graduated, her mother was both proud and sad. “All her friends were talking about where they will be working,” said her mom Gladys Tzul. “It’s a shame that my daughter can’t because I know she’s so skilled.”
Batz has considered moving to Canada to work as a nurse there, but wants to stay in the county where she has lived since age 3.
“I would love to stay in Texas and work and take care of Texans,” Batz said.
Now, Batz works at the same restaurant as her parents while she holds out hope for a policy that would allow her to enter the field she studied.
“We have so much to offer, not only to the economy,” Batz said. “That's what everybody likes to say. They like to make us into money. That's what they're losing: money.”
“But we're a vital part of the community,” she added. “If they can't ever come up with some kind of solution to where we can all work legally, it's a loss to the community.”
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