DALLAS — The Dallas Regional Chamber is all about connecting business leaders in the region.
On Thursday, the organization hosted its 19th Congressional Forum in Downtown Dallas.
The event featured a panel conversation between Congressman Marc Veasey, Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, and Congressman Keith Self. Two democrats and two republicans who all represent different parts of North Texas.
Van Duyne opened her remarks with, “What’s happening at the border. We look at the results of fentanyl in our communities. The results of crime, gang activity, sex trafficking. We’re hearing that all the time.”
Veasey replied, “We have to do something on immigration when it comes to our farm visas, our work visas, or the H1B visas which are going to be crucial to grow the technology sector that’s here.”
Congressman Keith Self represents Collin County.
“Until we solve the illegal immigration issue, there’s no appetite in Congress to work on legal immigration," Self said.
Dallas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett who recently gave a 10-minute speech at the DNC in Chicago last week said more resources need to be poured into the immigration bucket.
“We’ve got to make sure that we give the financial resources to the judges, to the case workers to everyone that is working to make sure the good guys trying to help our economy get in and the bad guys get out," Crockett said.
Crockett who is known for her confrontations with Republicans announced Wednesday night she was named as a national co-chair for Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign.
"I'm just outdone! Thank you to VP @KamalaHarris & Gov @Tim_Walz for allowing me to be a part of this Historic Campaign! Now, let's GO WIN!" she wrote in a post on X.
She was also recently on Inside Texas Politics, where she talked with WFAA's Jason Whitely about the upcoming presidential election.
There was a lot of time dedicated to discussing the growth of North Texas.
Self, who represents Collin County, pointed out, “In the nation, McKinney is the number one real estate market. Frisco is the number two real estate market. Allen is the number nine real estate market in the nation."
From there, the conversation pivoted to infrastructure of all kinds.
“You’re going to have a tremendous amount of growth that is going to be north of here and has happened northwest of here. How are we going to connect those communities,” Veasey asked.
Crockett expounded, “We have been at a breaking point. You continue to add people to the state who are demanding more energy on this broken grid that still is not fixed. That is actually a really big problem.”
Van Duyne went on to say that North Texans and businesses are feeling the pinch due to the rise in inflation.
"It is crippling them," Duyne said.
In the end, Self wanted those in attendance to know, “We respect our colleagues. We disagree on many things but we need to learn to disagree without being disagreeable.”
“I think we did alright. There were some varying viewpoints on some issues, particularly around immigration and I want to roll my sleeves up and get things done. I don’t want to play games," Veasey said.