The repeal of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals threatens many immigrant employees in the Austin tech sector, local tech community members said Thursday during a panel discussion on the topic.

The panel was co-hosted by tech advocacy organization FWD.us, which fights for comprehensive immigration reform, and Austin Startup Week.

As of Oct. 5, DACA recipients are no longer able to renew their deferred action status, which delays deportation for two years and includes a work permit. Of the 800,000 DACA recipients in the U.S., more than 120,000 live in Texas. California is the only state with more DACA recipients.

The loss of these 120,000 workers will cost the Texas economy $6.1 billion annually, according to the Center for American Progress.

When the first work permits begin to expire without an option to renew on March 5, more than 1,400 DACA recipients each day will lose their ability to work, according to a report published by the Center for American Progress and FWD.us.

These workers will include kindergarten teachers, health care professionals and first responders, according to the panel's moderator, Zaira Garcia, the Texas organizing manager for FWD.us.

"To remove these hardworking people who are creating value in our community makes no economic sense," immigration lawyer and panelist Jason Finkelman said.

The cost of repealing DACA

"It's really really hard right now to find great, engaged employees," panelist Dave Hendricks, CEO and founder of startup SeriesX, said.

DACA recipients, he said, are ideal candidates.

"When we're talking about DACA people, it's people who have been screened in every way possible," L. Garcia, an Austin marketing strategist and DACA recipient who asked that we not use his first name, said.

In order to receive his deferred action status, L. paid more than $500 in fees, submitted to medical and drug tests, turned over educational records, was fingerprinted and provided answers to very personal questions.

He moved here when he was 2 years old with his parents, who came to the United States from Mexico.

"The U.S. is really all that I've known," L. said. "I don't know what after DACA looks like."

He worries about seeing his family, who live in the United States legally, and his clients, including a handyman in Cedar Park.

"If you walk through Austin, if you walk through Whole Foods, I guarantee you [will] cross [paths with] someone that I've worked with."

With the repeal of DACA, Austin will lose business owners like L., who pay taxes and employ people. He was educated in public schools and, as a result of graduating in the top 10 percent of his high school class, was accepted into The University of Texas at Austin, where undocumented Texas residents pay in-state tuition.

"Other countries get some of our best people," Hendricks said. "That's what happens."

Who's affected?

"This issue of immigration—and more specifically of undocumented immigrants—affects everyone," Finkelman said.

Austin companies will lose out on qualified candidates from other countries who feel the U.S. is inhospitable to immigrants, he said.

And DACA recipients in Austin will have to leave their jobs once their work permits expire, which will affect their employers and the local economy.

Finkelman encouraged Austinites to advocate on behalf of DACA recipients to their representatives.

"For whatever you believe in, there are 10 people who believe the opposite who are calling your congressperson," he said.

Constituent concerns are recorded by congressional staffers and relayed back to the representatives, Finkelman said.

There is bipartisan support for DACA recipients in Congress.

Calling your representative confirms that this is an important issue for their constituents, Zaira said.

"Not getting this passed means that collectively we were unconscious and we were lazy," panelist and Latinitas board member Venus Pineyro said.

"If we all want to lose, we do nothing," Finkelman said. "If we all want to win, we do something."