The Forum Daily | Wednesday, March 27, 2024
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**THE FORUM DAILY** 

Undocumented essential workers are getting lost in the conversation as
politicians focus heavily on the border, Karen Tumulty writes in a
Washington Post

column. 

Census Bureau data indicate that two-thirds of undocumented workers in
the U.S. have jobs that were deemed essential during the pandemic. That
translates to more than 5.2 million people, including about a million
Dreamers. 

"People who cleaned hospitals during the pandemic, who provided home
health care and child care, who kept food coming to our tables, who
built temporary clinics - do not have permanent legal authorization to
live in this country," Tumulty notes.  

That's just one reason former President Donald Trump's campaign
promise of large-scale deportations is alarming immigration advocates,
Tumulty notes. 

"What he's talking about is rounding up millions of essential workers.
Let's be clear about that," said Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us
, which extrapolated
from the Census Bureau data.  

The pandemic helped make immigrant essential workers' importance

even clearer. But it was true before the pandemic and remains true
today. 

Separately, 19 senators sent a letter to President Biden yesterday,
urging him to quicken the process of legal status for undocumented
immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens and those with Deferred
Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), reports Alexander Bolton of The
Hill
.
 

In the letter, the senators underscored the importance of this
population to the greater American community and their impact in the
economy. 

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

**FAMILY SEPARATION** - The U.S. immigration and child welfare systems
sometimes effect the separation of migrant families, reports Deborah
Sontag for The New York Times
.
Sontag follows the journey of a woman named Olga as she tries to get her
son back after being separated, first by her abusive husband and then by
the U.S. government. "[P]eople don't realize how much [family
separation] occurs every day in the interior of the country," said Lori
Nessel, director of an immigrant rights clinic at Seton Hall
University. 

**LOST GDP** - Yesterday we noted the prospect of trillions in future
GDP growth with contributions from more immigrant workers. A new study

from the National Foundation for American Policy offers more evidence of
this relationship, albeit in the negative: Slower expansion of the
working-age immigrant population has hurt the economy, Stuart Anderson
writes in Forbes
.
Researcher Madeline Zavodny found that "the foregone GDP due to the
slower growth in the working-age foreign-born population after 2015 was
equivalent to approximately $335 billion in 2022," Anderson writes. Yet
more evidence that we still have room to grow
.  

**DISAPPOINTMENT** - Prince William County Police Chief Peter Newsham
expressed disappointment after Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) vetoed a
bill that would have allowed DACA recipients to serve as police
officers, reports Cher Muzyk of the Prince William Times
.
Newsham, a Law Enforcement Immigration Task Force
member, spoke of would-be officer Jemny Marquinez, who came to the U.S.
at age 3: "We are very disappointed that a county resident and county
employee who considers the United States her home will not be able to
pursue her lifelong dream of serving her community."   

**MILITARIZED** - As the hold on Texas' SB 4 law continues, Patrick
J. McDonnell of the Los Angeles Times

takes a closer look at the spot along the U.S.-Mexico border where Gov.
Greg Abbott (R) first deployed state forces and the National Guard.
McDonnell describes the area near Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, as "a
militarized zone, fortified by rifle-toting soldiers, a fleet of Humvees
and a forest of razor wire glistening in the desert sun." 

Thanks for reading,  

Dan 

**P.S.** Women of Welcome gets a
well-deserved mention in a recent episode of the podcast "Worthy:
Celebrating the Value of Women
." 

** **

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