Stan Marek, CEO of Houston construction company Marek Brothers, has struggled to find workers, particularly for trade labor positions. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program has filled this gap. 

The Obama-era program announced in 2012 allows immigrants who came to the U.S. as children to get a work permit, driver’s license, and temporary relief from deportation. He currently employs at least six DACA recipients. 

“They are supporting the economy and we need them,” Marek said. “I believe in business and business cannot survive without immigration.”

Now Marek is worried about a hearing on Thursday, Oct. 10, that will determine the future of “Dreamers” who came to the country as children, including an estimated 27,000 Houstonians. With the fourth-largest DACA population in the country according to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, Houston is one of the cities most impacted. The case comes at a moment when the threat of mass deportations under presidential candidate Donald Trump looms large.

DACA has been in limbo since Trump tried to end it during his presidency. The Obama-era program was meant to provide temporary relief to children who immigrated to the U.S. But gridlock on immigration has meant no legislative solution or pathway to citizenship for “Dreamers.” 

This has left the fate of DACA recipients in the hands of the courts. If a judge rules to end the program, thousands of Houstonians will be stripped of their legal status. 

The case brought by Texas and eight other states in 2018 challenges the president’s authority to enact DACA without congressional approval. The plaintiffs also argue that DACA recipients are a financial burden to the state.

Both sides will present their arguments before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Oct. 10. Judges Jerry E. Smith, appointed by former President Ronald Reagan, Edith Brown Clement, appointed by former president George W. Bush, and Stephen A. Higginson, appointed by former President Barack Obama, will preside over the hearing. 

During an election year where immigration has become a hot-button issue, DACA is one of the programs that maintains strong public support. More than 80 percent of people believe that immigrants brought to the U.S. as children should have a pathway to citizenship, even as overall support for immigration is declining, according to a June 2024 Gallup poll.

Juan Carlos Cerda, Texas State Director for the American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC), said that the Texas Attorney General is “playing with fire” by forging on with this lawsuit.

“He’s attacking a group that’s highly sympathetic among the American public,” said Cerda, who is also a DACA recipient. “This could have consequences next year in the coming years for the party he belongs to.”

Immigration advocates and business leaders in Houston have questioned arguments that DACA hurts the Texas economy. Instead, they point to economic contributions of DACA recipients that outweigh the use of publicly funded services. 

DACA recipients pay $6.2 billion in federal taxes and $3.3 billion in state and local taxes each year, according to the White House. In Houston, these DACA recipients pay an estimated $246 million in federal taxes and $136 million in state and local taxes. 

“We’re talking about losing tax contributions that go to schools, that go to our infrastructure, our roads, our airports,” said Cerda. “People would notice.”

After a Fifth Circuit ruling, the case could eventually make its way to the Supreme Court.

“That could mean that DACA could potentially end,” Cerda said. “That would be devastating.”

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