Eli Lilly & Co. has been making medicines for nearly 150 years. Our success continues to be deeply rooted in our purpose of making life better for all people — and we know we are better positioned to deliver scientific breakthroughs when our workplace is diverse, equitable and inclusive.

What many people may not know is our diabetes and weight loss medicine that is often in the headlines was invented by four people here in our home state of Indiana — three of whom are immigrants to our country.

As a global company, we must be able to leverage global talent. We are deeply concerned with a troubling new study published by the Coalition for the American Dream — an organization of leading businesses, including Lilly, representing every major sector of the U.S. economy and more than half of American private sector workers. This study urgently underscores why sensible immigration reforms are critical to our business, economy and nation.

Today, many employees who support our workforce face the burden of not knowing whether they’ll be able to continue living and working in the only country they’ve ever known as home. DACA recipients at our company — and hundreds of thousands of others who live and work in nearly every community across the U.S. — are at risk of losing their protections from work authorization to deportation.

Our elected leaders must take urgent action to prevent crushing losses to our economy and communities.

DACA recipients include more than 500,000 young people who have lived virtually their entire lives in the U.S. They’ve gone to school, started their careers and families here, and have deep ties to our communities.

It should be clear enough that separating these young Americans from their families, colleagues and communities would be a terrible moral failure for our country. But we also can’t afford to ignore the impact of losing DACA without considering the staggering economic toll removing DACA recipients from the nation’s workforce would have on the U.S. economy in every respect.

According to the Coalition for the American Dream’s new report, forcing DACA recipients to stop contributing to the U.S. economy would result in 440,000 direct job losses, including an estimated loss of 37,000 health care professionals. If DACA ended, the report shows up to $648 billion of income losses to the U.S. economy over the next three decades, including $28 billion in losses in manufacturing nationwide, with $2.7 billion in losses for industries in our home state of Indiana.

It makes no sense to push these highly qualified people out of our workforce, particularly not when our economy is still recovering, and DACA recipients are serving in already shorthanded sectors like research and development.

We want all our employees to feel welcome and included. I know this first-hand as a longtime Lilly employee and immigrant to the U.S. myself. This global diversity makes our company a better workplace and drives our commitment to leading the change we want to see in the communities where we live and work.

Lilly has been proud to support immigrants’ rights and scholarships for DACA recipients in Indiana to improve access to more equitable, affordable post-high school education opportunities. We’ll continue to work alongside our partners to advocate for DACA recipients and their ability to stay in the country they know as home.

Ultimately, Congress must pass a permanent legislative solution, which doesn’t seem likely anytime soon. We call on the Biden administration to take urgent action now to use the tools at the president’s disposal to protect and support these hard-working young people and ensure continued economic growth.

Patrik Jonsson is executive vice president, president of Lilly Diabetes and Obesity, and president of Lilly USA at Eli Lilly and Co.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: At Eli Lilly, we depend on DACA recipients. Congress must act.