The George W. Bush Institute in Dallas hosted a panel discussion on immigration Tuesday, bringing together leaders from business, politics and religion, directing their arguments toward Texas conservaties who question the wisdom of reform. Introducing the panel was Randall L. Stephenson, Chairman and CEO of AT&T and Chairman of Business Roundtable.

From Dallas Business Journal, "AT&T CEO Stephenson: 'What are we waiting for?' on immigration reform":

“Immigration has been foundational for American growth for a long time,” Stephenson said. “Immigrants or their children have founded 40 percent of the companies in the Fortune 500.”

Immigrants or their children also founded 60 percent of the nation’s top 25 tech firms, Stephenson said. His comments came during a panel discussion on immigration a day after President Barack Obama blasted Republican inaction on immigration reform. Obama said he will launch a new effort “to fix as much of our immigration system as I can on my own, without Congress."

The U.S. still has the best higher education system in the world, said Stephenson, who is chairman of the Business Roundtable, an association of chief executives of the 200 largest U.S. companies, in addition to his leadership role at Dallas-based AT&T. But strict limits on visas for highly skilled workers lead those students to take jobs in countries that compete with U.S. companies such as AT&T (NYSE: T), Stephenson said.

“Immigration has always been a source of strength for this country,” he said. “It’s helped make America the world’s economic and innovation leader.”

The Dallas Morning News, "Immigration panel makes conservative appeal for reform":In his welcoming address, Randall Stephenson, AT&T’s chairman and CEO, dwelled on the economic benefits of immigration, saying that reform could help drive up the gross domestic product.

He acknowledged that reform, declared dead for this session of Congress, was politically risky.

“It’s really hard, but it’s really important,” he said. “Doing nothing is in reality a decision. … It’s deciding to ignore a major festering problem.”

In a recent paper, Business Roundtable documented the economic value of fixing America's broken immigration system. From "Contributing to American Growth  The Economic Case for Immigration Reform":

• The Bipartisan Policy Center estimate that reform would increase GDP by 4.8 percent over 20 years and decrease federal deficits by $1.2 trillion;
• The Partnership for a New American Economy estimate that immigrants or their children founded 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies; and
• The Partnership for a New American Economy estimate that immigrants are nearly 50 percent more likely to start a business and help grow their local economies.

Finally, today's lead editorial in The Wall Street Journal takes two sides to task in the debate, President Obama and the House Republicans. From "The Immigration Reform Collapse: A bipartisan failure that will hurt the economy—and especially the GOP":

American economy will be the biggest loser. Contrary to Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions and other Republicans who've adopted AFL-CIO economics, immigrants do not steal American jobs. The U.S. has a labor shortage in the industries that immigrants are most likely to fill.

At the low-wage end of the economy, jobs go begging in agriculture, hospitality and in some places construction. At the high end, the U.S. needs more engineers, software designers, biologists and so much more. America's loss of human capital will become the rest of the world's gain, as potential immigrants return to China and India or settle in Canada or Australia. An America growing at a dispiriting 2% for five years amid declining real incomes needs better from its political class.

Business Roundtable is focused on policies to promote private investment and economic growth, chiefly tax reform, expanded trade and immigration reform. Inaction on any and all of these just means more of the same tepid economy the United States has experienced since the Great Recession. Want to rise above 2 percent growth? Fix America's broken immigration system.