Welcome to an abbreviated Friday edition of The Forum Daily as we emerge from a fruitful staff retreat. We hope you enjoyed yesterday’s We Welcome takeover!

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

Here are some of the stories we’ve been reading the past couple of days.

On Capitol Hill:

Biden brings congressional leaders to White House at pivotal time for Ukraine aid and US border deal (Lisa Mascaro, Seung Min Kim and Aamer Madhani, Associated Press)
‘It’s time to act’: McConnell pushes Ukraine-border plan despite Johnson’s doubts (Paul Kane, The Washington Post)
House GOP holds second impeachment hearing for Secretary Mayorkas (Tom Dempsey and Taylor Delandro, NewsNation)

Don’t miss national security leaders’ letter arguing against an impeachment, as highlighted in Impeachment hearings against DHS Secretary Mayorkas begin Thursday (Sandra Sanchez, Border Report)

On federal and state policies:

Texas defies federal demand that it abandon border area, setting up legal showdown (Camilo Montoya-Galvez, CBS News)
Some cities see migrants as a ‘lifeline.’ Policy could follow, experts say. (Tim Henderson, Stateline)

In opinion and commentary:

I’m an evangelical pastor. Politics drown out the truth about our views on immigrants (Kansas City Star op-ed by Pastor Reid Kapple)
Bad News for Employers, Immigrants and H-1B Visas in Second Trump Term (Forbes commentary by Stuart Anderson)

And some local stories that caught our eye:

Americans Making Immigrants Safe helps asylum seekers become self-sufficient in Cleveland (Elizabeth Emery, The Land)
Akron area became home to more than 500 new refugees in 2023, International Institute says (April Helms, Akron Beacon Journal)
Organization helps refugees through art (Sydney McCoy, Spectrum News 1 North Carolina)
1 year into Welcome Corps program, Brooklyn Park man looks back on helping sponsor refugees (Allen Henry, CBS Minnesota)

Thanks for reading,

Dan