Today marks two years since the fall of Kabul. As Tara Campbell of ABC7 News in San Francisco writes, tens of thousands of resettled Afghan evacuees are still in limbo. And in a new blog post, our intern Ashling Lee notes that other allies are still trying to get here. 

The Afghan Adjustment Act would help both groups. "[E]veryone has the hope [Congress] will do something with that bill," Nasrullah Amirzai, an evacuee who has resettled in Concord, California, told Campbell.  

"Afghan allies put their lives and their families’ lives at risk to help the U.S. military in our efforts to defeat al Qaeda and the Taliban," Afghanistan veteran Francis Q. Hoang, a Council on National Security and Immigration leader, said in a statement. "By doing so they have earned the opportunity to stay in the country and obtain legal permanent resident status."  

Americans resoundingly agree, as our new polling together with World Relief, More in Common and The Bullfinch group shows. "These findings underscore Americans’ inspiring support and welcome for our allies. Congress will be acting with American security and interests in mind when it moves forward," said Jennie Murray, our President and CEO.  

Indeed, communities across the country have embraced Afghan evacuees as our new neighbors. The Rev. Erin Tamayo writes about Arizona’s "remarkable response" in an Arizona Capitol Times op-ed.  

Welcome to Tuesday’s edition of The Forum Daily. I’m Dan Gordon, the Forum’s strategic communications VP, and the great Forum Daily team also includes Karime Puga, Clara Villatoro, Ashling Lee and Katie Lutz. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected].   

MIGRANT SAFETY — A 3-year-old died Thursday in southern Illinois during the journey from the U.S.-Mexico border to Chicago aboard one of Texas’ migrant buses, reports Jake Sheridan of the Chicago Tribune. It’s the first fatality reported during transport since Operation Lone Star began, as Paul J. Weber of the Associated Press notes. Separately, amid triple-digit temperatures, essential water barrels for migrants near the southern border in Texas have disappeared, raising concerns for migrants’ safety, reports Valerie Gonzalez, also of the Associated Press. 

BACKLOGS — The U visa program aims to help law enforcement investigate "serious crimes" by protecting undocumented victims and witnesses, but backlogs have left them in immigration limbo for years, reports Tirzah Christopher of NPR. "Being in limbo is like being trapped. Every aspect of your life is up in the air," said Luis Melean, a U visa applicant.  

SHORTAGES, PART 1 — The U.S. is facing a worsening shortage of skilled nurses, and more immigration could be the solution, Wayne Winegarden writes for Forbes. The shortage is associated with adverse patient outcomes, higher mortality rates, medication errors and increased stress on nurses. "Unless this visa backlog is alleviated, the current nursing shortage is all but guaranteed to worsen. And patients will bear the brunt of these costs," Winegarden writes. 

SHORTAGES, PART 2 — The Columbia Restaurant in the Tampa Bay area was a favorite when I lived down there. But Florida’s new immigration law is worsening staffing shortages there and across many business sectors, Mary Ellen Klas of the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times reports. Owner Richard Gonzmart, a supporter of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), says better migrant protections are necessary. "I just think politicians are listening too much to the far left or the far right, and it’s people in the middle that care about people,’’ he said. " … We can’t let everyone in. But we have to look to help those who are here — and who have been law-abiding — to realize a dream." 

Thanks for reading, 

Dan