For the first 250 years, America was shaped by those who immigrated here, including the founding fathers. Over the next 250 years, America will be defined by how we integrate, understand and invest in immigrants through education, workforce development, innovation, entrepreneurship and culturally.

For the last quarter of a millennium, immigrants powered farms and factories, built railroads and buildings, and launched countless small businesses that threaded together neighborhoods and created jobs. In addition, immigrant scientists, physicians, and engineers advanced healthcare, environmental science and across technology in the US, across the world and even in space. Add to that, immigrants and Latinos have served with great valor in every single war or conflict across every branch of the armed services sharing a tremendous sense of responsibility to the country that accepted them as their one of their own because we are American.

The Golden Door referenced at the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty that has symbolized the entry point for immigrants who were simply seeking opportunity and freedom should continue today, and in the future, because America is dependent on us.

I remember vividly when I immigrated as a child from Nicaragua and then fast forward to my citizenship swearing in ceremony in my late 20s alongside of my late immigrant mother who took advantage of that pivotal moment to define immigrant patriotism to me. “Hijo, we are Americans now but will always be immigrants which means we have to earn our stay in this great country. We weren’t born into the privilege of being American, we had to fight for it.”

And that fight continues today as immigrants continue to earn their stay as mi mami said by continuing to leave an indelible impression on the United States beyond nearly 20 percent of the names of states being in Spanish.

So, let’s take a quick look at culture … salsa outsells ketchup, corn chips outsell potato chips, Bad Bunny outstreams Justin Bieber, Carmelo Anthony gave everyone in the NBA buckets, and arepas, empanadas and pupusas are better than grilled cheese. Ok, that last one about grilled cheese was an opinion but pretty much a fact.

Now, let’s glance at America’s economic landscape. U.S. Latino GDP is more than 4 trillion dollars making us as a community the world's fifth-largest economy if we were an independent nation according to our friends at Latino Donor Collaborative. That means, Latinos in the US are more economically powerful than India, France, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Canada. In the last 10 years, the US Latino GDP grew nearly twice as fast as the overall US economy. All of this while facing challenges like lower wages and wealth disparities, yet we are still an economic global force. Nearly half of all Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children.

That means the next breakthrough in AI, clean energy, or medical research will likely come from someone whose family arrived here just a generation ago. So, with that, let’s look forward to the next 250 years because the next chapter of America’s history will be written in large part by Latinos and immigrants. Yes, the past is to be celebrated and to be learned from, but the future is to be created and accelerated and the best way to invest in our country’s future is with the Latino community. Immigrants start businesses at twice the rate of US-born citizens and Latino small businesses has grown by 44 percent despite facing less access to capital, smaller contracts, and systemic barriers.

Today, about one in five people in the United States is Latino, and over the next 25 years that number will be one in three and that growth will be a critical in preventing population decline which has negatively impacted global economies like Japan, Germany and South Korea.

Latinos are the youngest demographic in our country with more than 30 percent being under 18 and a median age of just 30 compared to almost 40 for the general population. According to the Pew Research Center, the most “common age” for Whites was 58 and for Latinos 11. Birth rates and aging populations create a critical imperative to invest in Immigrants and Latino communities.

Approximately 78 percent of all new jobs will be filled by a Latino over the next five years, and we need to make sure we’re prepared to help America compete globally. There is no working around the Latino community. It’s not a diversity play to engage our community – it’s an American necessity.

The next 250 years will largely depend on how our nation values and invests in immigrant communities and that starts with narrative and then policies that acknowledges the tremendous value proposition immigrants and Latinos present this country. As America transitions into the next 250 years, it will be lifted and carried by 65 million sets of hands which never get weary but get stronger because this nation has always been renewed every time someone arrives here with a dream and an opportunity, no matter how small, to make it real.