The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced it will release more than 64,000 supplemental H-2B Visas, for non-agricultural temporary workers, in fiscal year 2024, reports Andrew Kreighbaum of Bloomberg Law.  

The expansion comes after employers and elected officials around the country have been asking for an increase in work visas to address both the high numbers of migrant arrivals and labor shortages in key sectors. The visas will benefit industries related to hospitality, tourism, landscaping and seafood processing, among others. 

The temporary final rule will designate 20,000 supplemental visas to workers from El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras and other South American countries as part of efforts to reduce economic migration from the region, Kreighbaum notes. 

Meanwhile, at the Western Hemisphere summit President Biden hosted Friday, officials from 11 countries discussed ways to boost the economies of the region and address migration, reports Michael D. Shear of The New York Times.  

Biden opened the meeting with words of hope, saying that the summit’s goal was to "harness the incredible economic potential of the Americas and make the Western Hemisphere the most economically competitive region in the world," Steve Holland and Andrea Shalal of Reuters report. The leaders agreed to meet every two years, with Costa Rica hosting in 2025. 

Welcome to Monday’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].  

LONG-TERM CARE — Provider groups are applauding the efforts to collect unused green cards and address labor shortages in the health sector through the bipartisan Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act, reports Jessica R. Towhey of McKnight’s Long-Term Care News. "Creating more opportunities for international nurses to immigrate to the U.S. will help strengthen our long-term care workforce and protect access to care," said Clif Porter of the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living.   

SNAG — With the Texas Legislature’s special session ending tomorrow, time is running out on a sweeping immigration enforcement bill, reports Julián Aguilar of KERA News. The bill, which would make unauthorized entry into Texas from Mexico a state crime, has been subject to concerns — including among some Republicans in the legislature — that it would conflict with federal law. The bill could be taken up again in a follow-up special session.  

PRAYER — Catholic representatives from different states gathered in El Paso, Texas, to pray for the migrants who have died this year along the U.S-Mexico border, reports Julian Resendiz for Border Report. The Mass held along the Rio Grande is a yearly tradition made especially poignant this year by the record number of deaths. "We are praying in a particular way here for those who have died pursuing their dream of finding a place of refuge, of safety and found that dream die with them in our deserts, in our canals," said El Paso Bishop Mark J. Seitz (who is also a Forum board member). 

HOPE — Little Amal, the puppet depicting a refugee Syrian girl searching for home, visited the U.S.-Mexico border, reports Lorena Figueroa of The Guardian. Reaching gate 36 in the border fence, she stood on Mexican soil and waved to migrant children, who stood in awe of the giant puppet. "Amal made me feel happy and at peace again. For a moment, I forgot all my hardships," said Esaú Colindres, an undocumented migrant. "She gave me hope." 

Thanks for reading,  

Dan