The Forum Daily | Wednesday, December 20, 2023
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THE FORUM DAILY

Florida State Guard volunteers training to help catch migrants at sea
"gathered at a Panhandle combat training facility this fall for lessons
on how to use rifles and pistols, treat 'massive hemorrhages' and
practice 'aerial gunnery,'" report Ana Ceballos and Lawrence Mower
of the Tampa Bay Times

and Miami Herald
. 

Whether many, or any, of the 60 people trained so far have been deployed
is unclear, they report. The training contractor, Stronghold SOF
Solutions, was chosen without a competitive process under the state of
emergency Gov. Ron Desantis declared in January. 

To the west, immigration rights organizations filed a lawsuit on behalf
of El Paso County against the state of Texas after Gov. Greg Abbott
signed one of the strictest immigration enforcement laws in the country,
reports Uriel J. García of the Texas Tribune
. 

The groups say Senate Bill 4 would not allow immigrants to request
asylum in the U.S., as is their legal right. The groups are asking a
federal judge to block the law from taking effect in March. 

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador also plans to
challenge the law, labeling it "inhumane," Brendan O'Boyle and Kylie
Madry at Reuters

report. And border sheriffs in Texas are concerned that the law will
stretch their departments, Stephanie Esquivel reports for WOAI

in San Antonio. 

Jennie's take, in Austin Denean's piece for The National Desk
:
"If states begin to start doing this or think that they can enact their
own immigration policies, it's completely unworkable. You would end up
with 50 different state policies on top of federal, and it would drive
uncertainty and chaos." 

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, Isabella Miller, Clara Villatoro and
Katie Lutz. If you have a story to share from your own community, please
send it to me at [email protected]
. 

**AS MIGRATION CONTINUES** - Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) and
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York) issued a joint statement underscoring
their commitment to a deal on border measures and foreign aid, while
acknowledging that negotiations will carry into the new year, Burgess
Everett of Politico

reports. Meanwhile, Semafor
's
newsletter has two nuggets worth a look: The number of migrants crossing
the Darién Gap between Colombia and Panama has set a new record this
year, and the European Union has come to an agreement meant "to give
governments more control over their borders, by limiting entry and
making deportations easier." 

**RESPONSES** - McConnell is among Republican senators who have spoken
out against candidate Donald Trump's rhetoric regarding immigrants,
Chris Cameron reports in The New York Times
.
Meanwhile, our senior fellow, Linda Chavez, zones in on what Trump's
immigration plans would mean in her piece for The Unpopulist
. 

**CLOSURE** - Closures of two railway crossings at the U.S-Mexico
border are disrupting trade, report Steff Chávez, Eva Xiao
and Christine Murray of the Financial Times
. The
closed bridges in El Paso and Eagle Pass handle goods worth tens of
billions of dollars each year. "The urgency of reopening these crossings
and restoring rail service between the two nations cannot be
overstated," said Ian Jefferies, chief executive of the Association of
American Railroads. 

**IMMIGRANTS' IMPORTANCE** - Immigrants will be crucial to the
caregiving sector, where workers already are in short supply, Daniel
Gonzalez reports in the Arizona Republic
.
"Without enough immigrants to help care for the growing aging
population, family members may have to shoulder more of the
responsibility," he writes. Meanwhile, immigration is helping drive
population growth nationally, reports Mike Schneider of the Associated
Press
.
"The immigration piece is going to be the main source of growth in the
future," said William Frey, a demographer at The Brookings Institution.
 

Thanks for reading,  

Dan 

 

 

 

 

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