"In this engrossing analysis, Loren Steffy tells the story of how Stan Marek came to be one of Houston's most highly respected and tenacious advocates for rational immigration reform. With an increasing sense of urgency, the CEO of the Marek Family of Companies has been calling on business and civic leaders to reform the nation's immigration laws so that they are no longer so blatantly out of step with today's demographic and economic realities. 

To meet the demand for skilled labor as the baby boom retires, America will need to import workers and draw on the undocumented immigrants who are already here. Steffy and Marek propose a simple and politically feasible way forward, a program that would identify and tax undocumented workers in America and then allow them to participate in the economy without fear of deportation. The immigrants would still be ineligible to vote or to receive welfare benefits, but they would at last be able to come out of the shadows and into the economic mainstream. 

The compelling stories and persuasive arguments in this excellent book are a must-read for anyone concerned about the prospects for Houston and America as the twenty-first century unfolds."

—Stephen L. Klineberg, author of Prophetic City: Houston on the Cusp of a Changing America and Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Rice

"Loren Steffy and Stan Marek's new book Deconstructed is a clear-headed, cogent, and essential explanation of the many problems posed by the prevalence of undocumented (and unprotected) workers in the construction industry, grounded in a review of the schizophrenic, often xenophobic history of US immigration policies.  This plea for more rational policies that would enable workers to enhance their skills, pay taxes, and lead secure lives is given heart by the story of Stan Marek's own ancestors, immigrants who suffered many hardships but ultimately built one of Houston's great companies, and by Stan's lifelong campaign to improve the industry he loves by improving the conditions of its workers."

—Patricia Bernstein, author of Ten Dollars to Hate: The Texas Man Who Fought the Klan