Joaquin Castro: “Thank you, Congressman Polis, and thank you for your leadership on the issue of comprehensive immigration reform. I am…”

“Thank you, Congressman Polis, and thank you for your leadership on the issue of comprehensive immigration reform. I am proud to join you and Congressman Garcia of Florida as cochairs of the New Dem Coalition advocating for comprehensive immigration reform. As you mentioned, there are very compelling moral and economic reasons for the United States Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform in the year 2014. We know, for example, that there are a handful of American industries, four or five or six major American industries, that literally would not exist the way they do and would not be nearly as productive as they are but for immigrant labor--both legal and undocumented immigrant labor. For example, we know that about 40 percent of the tech businesses that have been started in Silicon Valley have been started by foreign-born persons, by immigrants. We know, for example, that with respect to the agricultural industry, they self- report that 50 percent of their workers are undocumented, which probably means that 75 percent of their workers are undocumented. So, on everything from the high-tech industry to the agriculture industry, construction and other trades, we can appreciate, especially myself coming from the great State of Texas, that Texas does more trade than any other State in the Nation. It has the longest border with Mexico of any State in the Nation. We can appreciate the role that immigrants have played in our society and continue to play in our economy.…”