The Forum Daily | Thursday, February 15, 2024
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THE FORUM DAILY

 

The federal government's lawsuit against Texas' pending new law that
makes unauthorized border crossings a state crime will be in federal
court today, reports Uriel J. García for The Texas Tribune
. 

Senate Bill 4 (SB 4), set to take effect next month, makes illegal
border crossing a misdemeanor punishable with a jail term of up to six
months. "Repeat offenders could face a second-degree felony with a
punishment of two to 20 years in prison," García notes. "The law also
requires state judges to order migrants returned to Mexico if they are
convicted; local law enforcement would be responsible for transporting
migrants to [the] border."   

"At best, this could create a problematic 'patchwork' system of
laws," the U.S. Department of Justice argues. "At worst, there may be a
disastrous impact on the federal government's ability to carry out its
core immigration functions." 

Advocates protested SB 4 at Gov. Greg Abbott's mansion yesterday,
reports Melia Masumoto of KVUE
.
For more on the timeline and significance of this case, take a look at
J. David Goodman's analysis in The New York Times
. 

Speaking of problematic state laws, Florida's 2023 law that forces
hospitals that receive Medicaid funding to ask patients' immigration
statuses has caused a drop in migrant women seeking mammograms and
prenatal care, "even in emergency situations," Arek Sarkissian of
Politico

reports. 

Welcome to Thursday'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, Darika Verdugo and
Clara Villatoro. If you have a story to share from your own community,
please send it to me at [email protected]
. 

**MIGRANTS NEEDED** - The need for workers across the country is real.
In an opinion analysis, Eduardo Porter and Youyou Zhou of The
Washington Post

share a deep analysis of which states have the most significant
shortages and thus would benefit most from migrant workers. "Rather than
ship the newcomers to New York, [Texas Gov. Greg] Abbott might instead
offer them the opportunity for a trip with a job to the Dakotas - or
Maryland, if he insists on hitting a blue state," they write. One
crucial piece, they note: authorization for migrants to work.  

**BORDER LIFE** - For the 19 million Americans who live along the
U.S-Mexico border, political rhetoric around closing the border is
problematic, reports Lauren Villagran of USA Today
.
"When people talk about closing the border, that is a terrifying idea to
people who live here," said Jeremy Slack, professor of geography at the
University of Texas at El Paso. "The community doesn't stop at the
international line." 

**PRESSURES** - The Biden administration is looking for alternative
ways to depressurize the border after the Senate's bipartisan
immigration deal deflated, report Tarini Parti and Michelle Hackman of
The Wall Street Journal
.
But: "No executive action, no matter how aggressive, can deliver the
significant policy overhauls and additional resources Congress can
provide," said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
Meanwhile, veterans and advocates are frustrated after certainty for
Afghans evacuated to the U.S. in 2021 was excluded from the Senate
supplemental spending bill, reports Rebecca Kheel of Military.com
. 

**VOTE FAVORS SOLUTIONS** - Tom Suozzi (D) said he would support the
Senate's border and immigration compromise, then won Tuesday's
special election in New York for a House seat, as the editorial boards
of both The Wall Street Journal

and The Washington Post

point out. "Many voters are fed up with border sloganeering," the
Journal's board writes. "They want to fix the problem." We're
hearing that too
. 

Thanks for reading,  

Dan 

**P.S.** Yesterday President Biden issued an executive order that
temporarily protects most Palestinians in the U.S. from deportation,
given the "humanitarian conditions in the Palestinian territories,"
reports Camilo Montoya-Galvez of CBS News
. 

 

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