The Forum Daily | Friday, March 1, 2024
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THE FORUM DAILY

 

Yesterday, a federal judge blocked Texas’ Senate Bill 4, reports Uriel J. García of The Texas Tribune. The law, which was scheduled to take effect Tuesday, would allow state police to arrest migrants who they suspect have not entered the country legally. 

District Judge David Ezra issued a preliminary injunction on the bill; Texas has appealed the ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. 

Ezra wrote in his decision that the law could do "irreparable harm" to the federal government’s authority: "SB 4 threatens the fundamental notion that the United States must regulate immigration with one voice," he wrote. 

Regarding the underlying challenges, states and the federal government need to coordinate "so that we can see these needs being met in a way that’s cohesive," Jennie told NewsNation in a video interview. 

The ruling came down the same day President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump visited the border, as Colleen Long, Seung Min Kim and Jill Colvin report for the Associated Press. 

Biden called for legislative solutions, highlighting Congress’ failure to advance border and immigration provisions that Republicans and Democrats in the Senate had negotiated. Trump employed militaristic language and focused on crime. Olympia Sonnier and Garrett Haake of NBC News analyze national data that debunks that rhetoric — and we’ll also leave this here. 

Last but not least, our colleague Matt Soerens of the Evangelical Immigration Table and World Relief offers perspective in an interview with Jenna Browder of CBN News, including the support of 80% of evangelicals for border and immigration solutions. 

Welcome to Friday’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, Ally Villarreal and Clara Villatoro. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected]. 

HALTED — The arrest of two boat captains in Colombia has temporarily stopped migration through the Darién Gap, reports Julie Turkewitz of The New York Times. That has affected about 3,000 migrants waiting in the towns of Necoclí and Turbo. The Darién Gap has become a significant migration path, with the crackdown marking a shift in Colombian policy against human trafficking in collaboration with U.S. agencies, Turkewitz notes. 

WAITING — Yuliia Boicheva and her family had a good life in Ukraine before the Russian invasion. Now, after being forced to flee to the United States, their future remains unclear, reports Emry Dinman of The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington. For the 170,000 Ukrainians who entered the U.S. through a temporary, two-year parole program, anxieties have been rising. "You feel like you’re sitting with a bomb, and we’re just waiting with this bomb," said Boicheva. [Some good news: Since this story published, USCIS has announced a re-parole process.] 

This week in local welcome: 

  • The town of Harvard, Massachusetts, population 6,870, has warmly welcomed two Afghan families, thanks to the efforts of volunteers and the town itself. (Marcela García, Boston Globe) 

  • Martha Hulshof of Sioux County, Iowa, has helped 120 Ukrainians — including the Todikash family — resettle there with the help of her church and others. (Sheila Brummer, IPR) 

  • In Knoxville, Tennessee, a former Afghan interpreter has reunited with his family and celebrates his culture through his new restaurant. (Heather Ryerson, Inside of Knoxville) 

‘A LOT OF FAITH’ — Religious workers are facing difficult decisions amid a backlog for permanent residency, reports Juan Carlos Chavez of the Tampa Bay Times. Andrés Arenas, a spiritual leader at Pentacostal church Iglesia Vida Nueva, has waited two years for his permanent residency to be processed and is unsure he’ll be able to continue his pastoral work. "My work and my life are in America, I don’t know what to do," Arenas said. "But we have faith — a lot of faith."  

INCENTIVES — Legal paths for migrants promise more benefits to the U.S. than a restrictive border, Hein de Haas writes in a Wall Street Journal essay. Allowing more authorized migrants to fill necessary jobs could reduce incentives for smuggling, he argues. In turn, "migrants will become more visible and more able to contribute to the communities in which they live and work." 

Thanks for reading,  

Dan