Some economists are calling Florida’s continuing labor-shortage crisis the new normal, report Mary Ellen Klass and Syra Ortiz Blanes of the Miami Herald. And the new state law cracking down on migrant workers is exacerbating it, with construction, restaurants, hotels, roofing, landscaping and agriculture the hardest-hit industries.

"People aren’t fully aware of just how dependent our labor force growth is on immigration," said labor economist Ron Hetrick, who lives south of Jacksonville. "A lot of our homes, a lot of our foods that we’re eating are because of immigration right now."

In the words of the Tampa Bay Times editorial board, "The state must address this economic threat by promoting legal pathways to immigration to provide Florida the workforce it needs."

Other places, too, are feeling the pinch of too few workers. In Texas, speakers at a panel discussion on labor shortages discussed immigrant visas as a solution, reports Jennifer Scott of the Tyler Morning Telegraph.

Experts at the event, held by the University of Texas and Rice University, highlighted that having more jobs than workers is contributing to inflation, and that more legal paths for immigrant workers could benefit the American economy.

"Immigrants and their children contributed more than one-half of workforce growth in the past two decades," said Jose Ivan Rodriguez-Sanchez, a labor economist with the Center for the U.S. and Mexico at Rice University.

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

TRAFFIC JAM — Operation Lone Star security crackdowns at the U.S-Mexico border are holding up at least 19,000 commercial trucks with $1.9 billion worth of goods, reports Andrea Navarro of Bloomberg. That has caused an outcry on both sides of the border. The crackdown "doesn’t help the region’s development and puts at risk tens of thousands of jobs in Mexico and in the U.S.," the Mexican trucking association said in a statement.

‘STARK CONTRAST’ — Videos tell the story of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s "increasing militarization" at the border in David Peinado, Brent McDonald and Meg Felling’s piece in The New York Times. Meanwhile, the Biden administration’s plan to carry out the building of a new stretch of the Texas-Mexico border wall "stands in stark contrast to the solutions the U.S. immigration system needs right now," our Policy and Advocacy Associate Alexandra Villarreal writes in an analysis for The Guardian. " … The best, most proactive way to keep many people from showing up at the US-Mexico border is to offer them a safer, more orderly pathway here."

REFUSAL — Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has refused U.S. requests to place migrant transit centers in Mexico, reports the Associated Press. These transit centers are meant to be a place for migrants to apply for U.S. work and refugee visas. López Obrador plans to discuss the transit centers in a meeting of Latin American leaders he will host later this month to develop a common plan.

DRIVERS OF MIGRATION — Political tension in Guatemala could influence migration trends from the region and pose challenges for migrants in transit in that country, reports Lauren Villagran of the El Paso Times. Farmers and indigenous people are leading protests against election interference.

Thanks for reading, 

Dan  

P.S. Meet some of America’s newest citizens in pictures and words thanks to Lynn Hulsey and Bill Lackey of the Dayton Daily News. They attended a naturalization ceremony at the University of Dayton School of Law last month.