Join award-winning journalist Linda Lorelle and a panel of experts, Cesar Espinosa (FIEL), Charles Foster (Foster LLP), Stan Marek (MAREK), and Emiliano Valencia (ABIC), for an insightful conversation about the vital role undocumented laborers have played in America’s construction workforce, the real human and economic costs of the current immigration system, and proposed policy solutions to provide legal status for foreign workers to meet nation’s growing workforce needs.
Panlists:
Cesar Espinosa
Cesar Espinosa is co-founder and current Executive Director of the largest immigrant-led civil rights organization in Texas named FIEL (Familias Inmigrantes y Estudiantes en la Lucha – Immigrant Families and Students in the Fight).
FIEL is immigrant-led organization that seeks to empower the immigrant community in Houston, the State of Texas and The United States. Mr. Espinosa has served and is currently serving on a variety of boards at the local, state and national level.
He has also always worked on a variety of issues including, race relations, police reform and a variety of issues uplifting many communities. Mr. Espinosa is an advocate for immigrants’ rights, students’ rights and human rights.
Charles Foster
Charles C. Foster is the Chairman of Foster LLP and is based in the Houston office.
Charles has dedicated much of his career to the improvement of his community. He served as senior immigration policy advisor to President George W. Bush in the 2000 and 2004 Presidential campaigns and as an immigration policy advisor to Barack Obama in the 2008 campaign. He is the founding Chairman of the Immigration & Nationality Law Section of the State Bar of Texas and has previously served as Chairman of the Governor’s Task Force on Immigration, the Greater Houston Partnership’s Economic Development Advisory Committee and World Trade Division, the American Bar Association’s Coordinating Committee on Immigration Law, and the State Bar of Texas Committee on Laws Relating to Immigration and Nationality and is past National President of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), the Houston Forum and the Houston Club and Board member of Ripley / Baker.
Stan Marek
Stan Marek, CEO of MAREK, one of the largest interior contractors in the Southwest. Stan has been focused on workforce development, sustainability and Comprehensive Immigration Reform. He is the co-founder of Texans For Sensible Immigration Policy and a member of the Greater Houston Partnership’s task force, Americans For Immigration Reform.
Emiliano Valencia
Emiliano Valencia is the Texas deputy director for the American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC). ABIC is a bipartisan coalition of over 1,800 employers and CEOs from across the country to provide a strong and unified voice seeking lasting immigration solutions. ABIC employers include agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare, hospitality, technology, and construction.
Image: Yo Creo by Real 333 (Eliud Zavala). Located in the Second Ward on the former Talento Bilingue de Houston building. Courtesy of Luis Ayala.
Nuestro Ambiente at a Crossroads is in conjunction with our current exhibition, Nuestro Ambiente: Latinos Shaping Houston, on view through January 30 at Architecture Center Houston.
Exhibition and Programming Sponsors
Marek; Martinez Architects; Gage Architecture; RDLR Architects; Regional Hispanic Contractors Association InfraTECH; DBR; Kirksey Architecture; Daniel Ortiz, AIA; Wilson and Catherine Maxey.
