Panel Discussion: COVID-19 Essential Workers and Immigration

This panel continues our partnership with Rational Middle Media and Rice University’s Baker Institute Center for the United States and Mexico the past several years to advance the conversation about immigration and its economic importance in Houston and Texas.

Immigrant workers, both documented and undocumented, play an important role in the country’s workforce. The coronavirus pandemic has put a new focus on just how much we rely on these workers for essential services.

Agriculture and meat packing, food distribution, grocery retail, healthcare, research, delivery, etc., rely significantly, in some cases almost exclusively, on immigrant labor. What are the facts about these numbers? In the time of COVID-19, how do we value these workers and secure their safety? What is the effect of current restrictive immigration policy?

Panelists
• David Bier, Immigration Policy Analyst, Cato Institute
• Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University; Non-resident Scholar, Baker Institute’s Center for the United States and Mexico (Rice University)
• Julia Gelatt, Ph.D., Senior Policy Analyst, Migration Policy Institute
• Ken Janda, Principal, Wild Blue Health Solutions; Adjunct Professor, Population Health, University of Houston College of Medicine; and Adjunct Professor, Management at Rice University Jones Business School