Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to IdeaGen TV. I am ecstatic to have my friend Javier Palomares with me today. Javier, welcome, good to be here. George, thanks for having me. The US Hispanic Business Council leading the way.

Speaker 2: 0:13

Thank you Thanks.

Speaker 1: 0:14

You know, it's an incredible time, javier, and you've talked a lot. You've talked so much about workforce shortages, and not just in a specific sector, but across the sectors. You've talked about healthcare, agriculture, construction, tech. From your perspective, leading the USHBC, what are some of the most urgent gaps that businesses are facing today and how are they?

Speaker 2: 0:44

adapting. Yeah, it's a great question, george, and again thanks for having me. You know, at the United States Hispanic Business Council we represent some four and a half million Hispanic owned firms in this country that collectively contribute over $850 billion to the American economy. As you know, and we've discussed many times, george, and it's become very clear to us, you know, we are first and foremost an American association. We're not a civil rights organization. We're about business and the economic and commercial interests of our nation.

Speaker 2: 1:19

So in that context, we work with small businesses all over this country and large, and we have become acutely aware of the workforce shortage that exists in this nation and it's perilously high. You look at certain sectors, you know. Agriculture is short some 350,000 workers. In the construction sector, we're short about a half a million workers. In the tech sector in its broader context, by the end of this year we will be short by a million workers. So this is reaching an epidemic level. And we're hearing from our business owners. According to our own polling system, as well as other information, we've gathered that 70 percent of business owners are telling us that they cannot get to full employment and be 100 percent productive simply because they can't get their hands on a willing and educated and ready workforce. So it's really becoming a big issue for the American economy.

Speaker 1: 2:27

Yeah, it is a big issue, as you've described it, and it's startling to hear the details as you describe them, and we'll talk about that further a little bit later in the interview. But I'd like for our global audience, the millions of people that are watching this summit, to learn a little bit more about you, javier Palomares, because you have this, like so many American journeys and stories, an incredible journey from migrant farm worker to national business leader. What a powerful story, javier. How has that shaped your understanding of what the American workforce really needs today?

Speaker 2: 3:13

You know I don't often talk about my background not publicly anyway but you and I have started a friendship and we've shared our own kind of journey, if you will shared, you know, our own kind of journey, if you will. And yeah, you know, I started out in a home where, you know, we were raised by my mother. My father left when I was very young, when I was six years old and I was the youngest of 10 kids and, yes, we were migrant farm workers. So we did whatever it took to, you know, to pay the bills and stay alive. And, despite the hardship, the reality of it is that it taught me many lessons about work and work ethic and discipline and what it takes to make it in a country like America, that I was fortunate enough to be born in this country, because in this country, anything is possible, even when you come from a background like mine.

Speaker 2: 4:10

And I'd like to say that you know there's nothing unique about me.

Speaker 2: 4:12

As you well know, I don't have a propensity for numbers, I'm not a brilliant anything, but I learned to work hard. And also, you know, there are millions of us out there of my vintage, particularly in the Hispanic community, that have had to struggle to get where we are, but it informs the way we look at life. It informs the way we look at everything, including work. Learned is that if you can find an environment and you can find an ecosystem that encourages workers that want to contribute because they want their families to do better, then magic can happen. And if you look at the history of immigrants in this country, corporations like Bank of America, at&t, ebay, google, a little company we may have heard of called Tesla, verizon, and the list goes on they were all started in America and they were all started by immigrants. So the immigrant story, not unlike your family or mine, is alive and well in America. We need now a refreshed system, a fresh perspective on immigrants and how to put them to work for the benefit of the American economy and the American people.

Speaker 1: 5:36

How powerful is that, and you know so. How can, then private sector leaders play a more proactive role, javier, in shaping what you term to be sustainable workforce strategies right, especially in industries that you hear a lot about today, like manufacturing and healthcare? You know it is really critical.

Speaker 2: 5:57

I think that business leaders really fight the urge to politicize this issue. Listen, this is not a Hispanic issue, it's not a Republican issue, it's not a Democratic issue. It's an American challenge and we need, particularly business leaders to coalesce, to begin to talk to each other across sectors, across industries, and work together to create an environment and a system and a network that will encourage the development of people, whether immigrant or not, whether native, born or not, to ensure that we are looking out for the future of the American economy and therefore the American people, and I'm talking 5, 10, 15, 20 years out. If we begin to talk about this now and develop the ecosystem and the apparatus to manage that need and the flow, then magic can happen. But this cannot become or continue to be something that gets politicized. It needs to become a business issue, it needs to become an American challenge where we all coalesce, we all work together for the betterment of the American economy.

Speaker 1: 7:13

It's so well said, and so entrepreneurs. So what advice, javier? Because you see it day to day in your work and everything that you do, and you have the critical experience to provide this type of advice, what advice would you give to young entrepreneurs and or business leaders from underserved communities?

Speaker 2: 7:35

You know, I think that the main thing I would say to an entrepreneur is really stick with it. These are difficult times. Our company I'm sorry our country is in transit, if you will. We're at a pivotal point in the history of this nation and what we do today is going to impact and inform what happens in the next 10, 15 years. We are making the decisions that will influence and run the lives of our children and, I dare say, maybe our grandchildren.

Speaker 2: 8:08

So, as an entrepreneur, you know, I think, that the main challenge that you have is how do you keep the lights on, how do you keep the enterprise growing, how do you keep your company moving forward? And the best advice I can give is one stay the course to understand where you represent value in the ecosystem and ensure that that value is sustainable over time. And three, it's really all about your people. Any business, regardless of size, will tell you, and any smart business owner will tell you, that you know their number one asset is not technology, it's not their financial strength. At the end of the day, it's their people. And so invest in your people. Ensure that you've got the right people, you've got them incented to continue to grow the enterprise. That's kind of in my mind, the nutshell, the thumbnail sketch I would give a young entrepreneur.

Speaker 1: 9:04

What incredible advice, you know advice I think we all wish we had when we were earlier in our careers, and so I could have avoided a lot of bumps and bruises.

Speaker 2: 9:13

Right, right.

Speaker 1: 9:15

That's. That's. That's exactly right. You've recently been well. First of all, you wrote an opinion piece. You've been on TV, newsmax and other channels highlighting a solution because again, you bring that critical perspective and expertise and vantage point, representing so many businesses across the country. So you come up with this new example of a visa as a bold, business minded solution to address the labor shortages and the crisis they're in. What inspired this idea and why do you think it resonates across both business and policy audiences?

Speaker 2: 10:03

You know, I think to a large extent, what inspired it. We just touched on our upbringing and kind of you know my background. A lot of it is really centered around this notion that in life you can't control what happens to you, but you can control what you do about it, and so I've always looked at the world and my work from that perspective. And when it comes to this issue of immigration reform and immigration in general, you know, I can choose to stay on the sidelines and whine and complain, like everybody else. I can choose to politicize it and kick the proverbial can down the road, as so many administrations have done, or I can choose to do something about it and say listen, this may not be the panacea that everybody expects, but it's a starting point. It's trying to move the ball forward, and so, in that context, my team and I and I have the best team in the world, the brilliant young people that work with me, many of them, you know we sat around the table and said, listen, if it was ours to do so, we cobbled together what were pieces of existing immigration legislation and came up with the Temporary Residence for Undocumented Migrant Professionals TRUMP Coincidentally it spells Trump.

Speaker 2: 11:27

The Trump visa is unique in that it really is built around the need that exists right now in agriculture, construction, manufacturing, hospitality and technology in a broader context, because we know that we are critically in need of people to run those industries. If you look, george, at agriculture, 83% of the labor in the agricultural sector is of immigrant background. At the same time, in 2023, which are the latest numbers I have in 2023, according to the Texas International Produce Association, our nation and our farmers had to destroy 10 million tons, not 10 million pounds, 10 million tons of corns and grains and produce that went unharvested simply because they didn't have the manpower to harvest those crops. If you look at those two realities, then you're honor bound to do something about it, particularly if you're a small business association. And that was the genesis behind us, kind of getting around the table and looking at this thing and saying, listen, it needs to be focused on these five sectors that we know have the need. It also needs to pay for itself.

Speaker 2: 12:49

So the Trump visa is created so that any recipient of a Trump visa has to pay between 10 to 20% in taxes. Therefore, the system, the network and the implementation gets paid by the taxes that these people are paying to be a recipient of the visa. It brings them out of the shadows. It gets them to paying taxes, so the American taxpayer isn't burdened with this new system. And there's three things that I think I need to point out that the Trump visa does not do. One, it does not guarantee citizenship, nor is it a pathway to citizenship. Two, it does not guarantee any government benefits or no welfare of any kind. And three, it doesn't afford you any voting rights. This visa is created specifically for people who are here to work, who are here to contribute and want to earn their way into the American dream.

Speaker 1: 13:45

Incredible. And so you emphasize that this proposal is not amnesty, but rather a contribution-based program. So how do you balance the need for the workforce stability with the national security and immigration enforcement?

Speaker 2: 14:02

Great, great, great question, and you know we struggled with this, because paramount to all of this is the rapid, immediate identification and deportation of known criminals, people that we know are here to do us harm, and so we absolutely support the Trump administration's efforts on that front.

Speaker 2: 14:25

We should not stop that effort.

Speaker 2: 14:27

We should, in fact, step on the accelerator and get that done post haste.

Speaker 2: 14:32

At the same time, though, the balance that needs to exist between the needs we have in critical industries like the ones we've mentioned, and so it really is a balancing act between how do we ensure that, from an economic standpoint, we're taken care of?

Speaker 2: 14:48

But, first and foremost, the safety and security of the American people has to be the driving force here, and the idea would be that, if you are a Trump recipient, you will have to illustrate, by carrying your visa with you, that you are here, that you are employed. The employer would have to immediately identify you as being fired or leaving the company, so that if someone finds you somewhere else with your Trump visa and we check the database and it turns out that your employer let you go last month, then you're out of here, and so it's temporary, and only and only if that person continues to be employed. If they change jobs, the new employer needs to pick up the identification, let the system know employee XYZ left this company. They now work for me. I now have them and they are open to being audited anytime by any federal agent that comes in and says I want to see your Trump visa recipients and I want to take role.

Speaker 1: 15:52

Make sure everybody's here, trump visa recipients, and I want to take role, make sure everybody's here. So your piece on TV and your article cites striking data on labor shortages and, in addition to that, economic risk. Why do you believe, javier, that this crisis hasn't gained more mainstream traction, and what role can business leaders play in shifting that conversation?

Speaker 2: 16:18

You know, I think the reality of it is. You know, no matter what administration is in the White House, whether it's a Republican or Democratic administration, whether it's President Trump or a predecessor, the responsibility, to a very large extent, lies with the business community. We're the ones with the need and we're the ones who are responsible for looking out for the the the needs of the American economy and our industries and our companies, and so there's a lot that needs to be done from the business side of this equation. We need to own this and we need to step up and offer ourselves to the administration and to be able to help and say listen, we know there's an issue here, and digging a hole or sticking our head in the sand and allowing the political diatribe and the verbal confetti that's coming out of both parties about this issue is not going to solve it for us. It's also not going to be a situation where there's going to be a huge, comprehensive fix.

Speaker 2: 17:34

It's simply too complicated an issue. We're too large a nation, so we need to take it one bite at a time, and that's why the Trump visa focuses on those five industries, so that you can test the concept and get better at it. But it's a way to get something going, something implemented, so that, as we're talking about mass deportations, and the American economy, particularly these five industries, are yelling because they don't have the resources for what we know is going to be an economy that needs even more workers. It's kind of getting ahead of that thing and taking some accountability, but from the business perspective, it's us saying to ourselves we have a responsibility here and we need to approach the administration, we need to be as collaborative as we can, put politics aside and find solutions for the American economy and the American people.

Speaker 1: 18:26

So you framed the visa as pro-business, pro-worker, pro-american, and so how do we keep solutions like this above the political fray? In other words, how do you, george, I can tell you that from our association's perspective.

Speaker 2: 18:56

All we can do is offer ourselves up, offer solutions, offer and volunteer to be part of the solution and help inform the strategy for how we move our economy and our nation forward.

Speaker 2: 19:10

I don't know, in the environment that we live in today, how to stop the politicizing of everything. At the end of the day, you know, my personal ideology is that. You know, I don't think that because somebody has a different political opinion or political ideology that's different from mine, I don't believe they're any less American than we are. So I think, as business owners, we need to start with that mutual respect and understand that people come at life from their own perspective. There's gonna be different ideologies, but the more differences that you have at the table, the more diversity of thought that you have around the table, the better, I think, strategy you'll come up with, because you'll get all of these different viewpoints. But there has to be a place where we can respectfully dialogue, respectfully even disagree, but all with an aim to move forward. But again, I come back to this notion that the American business community has a role to play. We need to coalesce, we need to take ownership of this and start working with the administration to try to find solutions.

Speaker 1: 20:19

And so if this proposal were implemented as you envision it, what kind of impact could we expect in the first year, and how might that then evolve over time?

Speaker 2: 20:32

I mean, think about it Right now. You know we talked about the shortage in healthcare. You know, if you are an industry that is struggling to find the nurses that are necessary, imagine the impact if all of a sudden, there's an influx of nurses that are trained and are willing and are identifiable and that are contributing and paying their way through the taxes in the immediate fresh of breath air, the immediate relief that would be felt in the medical system in this country year will be short by a million workers. You can't hardly compete with the likes of china if you don't have the resources, ie the personnel, to compete, and so the first thing you need is to have a ready, trained and willing workforce so that you can compete on a global basis and continue to be, you know, the leader in technology and innovation. We can hardly do that, or continue to be, you know, the leader in technology and innovation. We can hardly do that or continue to do that if we don't have the people working in the technology sector.

Speaker 2: 21:42

I mean, the solutions are there and I think the effects and the results will be almost immediate. Imagine if you did have all of the people that you need in the agricultural sector and those 10 million tons of produce didn't get wasted every year. Imagine what we could do for the homeless and those that are hungry in our own country, never mind how we could help other countries. The solutions are there. We just need to start putting the dots together and be courageous enough to get past the politics and get on with the business of getting it fixed.

Speaker 1: 22:19

Yeah, and you know what, what? What you're talking about, as you've said so many times, javier is common sense.

Speaker 1: 22:25

Yeah exactly You're coming up with a common sense solution as as developed by you, helping to see and work with and impact business small business particularly every single day, and so that's why you've come up with a potential solution and you want to be a partner, and so that leads me to cross-sector. You talked about all these sectors and I believe that's the whole basis of IdeaGen is cross-sector collaboration. That's the whole basis of IdeaGen is cross-sector collaboration. What partnerships, specifically or coalitions would be needed across government, business, community organizations to bring about this type of solution and help it come to life?

Speaker 2: 23:06

You know, I'm not sure that that exists now, but I do believe that there should be. You know, one of the things I have to say about the Trump administration agree or not, they're doing things differently. They're throwing the rule, the rule book, out the window and figuring it out for themselves and trying new things, and in business, oftentimes, that's what it takes to succeed. Some ideas succeed, some don't, but in the absence of trying, in the absence of that experimentation, then you're hardly going to find a better way. And so I think we all need to kind of look at it and and figure out how can we create a partnership between, you know, the public sector and the private sector, with business having a critical role, particularly people in those sectors that we talked about manufacturing, agriculture, construction, hospitality and tech at the table to inform the strategy for how we move forward. And out of that, I think, will come the coalitions, the networks, the apparatus, if you will, to get this thing done.

Speaker 1: 24:15

Javier Palomares, ceo United States Hispanic Business Council. Changing the world, leading the way. Ideagen is all about leadership and, my friend, you are a leader.

Speaker 2: 24:27

Thanks for what you're doing. Appreciate it, George.

Speaker 1: 24:28

Thank you Thanks for having me.