The Forum Daily | Thursday, March 28, 2024
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**THE FORUM DAILY** 

Our prayers continue
to be
with the loved ones of the six construction workers who are presumed
dead after the Francis Key Scott Bridge collapse earlier this week. The
missing workers were originally from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and
Honduras, as a team at The Baltimore Sun

reports.  

"My heart hurts because of what's happening," said fellow Brawner
Builders worker Jesús Campos. "We are human beings, and they are my
co-workers. The situation is tough." 

The tragedy underscores the vulnerability of immigrant workers in the
United States, as Scott Dance and María Luisa Paúl report in The
Washington Post
. Workplace
deaths are disproportional for foreign-born Hispanic and Latino workers
in particular and have been rising, according to the Bureau of Labor
Statistics
. 

"We leave with so many dreams," said Maritza Guzman de Villatoro, whose
husband and brother-in-law died in an incident last year at a different
highway construction site. "Here, immigrants have the hardest times and
do the hardest jobs, and then we're the first to break."  

Pia Orrenius, a senior economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of
Dallas, talked with Elizabeth Trovall of Marketplace
 about
immigrant workers' importance in these industries. Without the
immigrant workforce, she said, "you would see a lot of bottlenecks to
growth."

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

**HAITI** - More than 480 human rights organizations have sent a
letter

urging President Biden to pause deportations to Haiti and update
Temporary Protected Status to assist more Haitians already in the U.S.,
reports Julia Ainsley of NBC News
.
"There is no excuse to send anyone to anywhere in Haiti right now," said
Guerline Jozef, co-founder of Haitian Bridge Alliance. Gang violence in
recent weeks has resulted in thousands of kidnappings, injuries and
deaths, report Rebecca Falconer and Stef W. Kight of Axios
.  

**SB 4** - A federal appeals court panel rejected a petition to lift
the block on Texas' SB 4 law, reports Benjamin Wermund of the Houston
Chronicle
.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Texas National Guard soldiers were deployed to
the border Tuesday afternoon, reports Tirza Ortiz of KTSM
.
These soldiers are specially trained to deal with civil disturbance, per
a Texas Military Department spokesperson.  

**HUMANITY** - For people of faith, SB 4 and Texas Attorney General
Ken Paxton's lawsuit against Annunciation House in El Paso are
"chilling" developments, Jenifer Wellman writes in an El Paso Matters

op-ed. "If our state - and our country - really care about
addressing the border," Wellman writes, "we would do well to remember
the humanity of migrants, along with recognizing that extreme solutions
are at odds with what the majority of Americans want." 

**HELP STILL WANTED** - Nevada business leaders are highlighting the
need for streamlined work authorization for the crucial immigrant
workforce, Grace Da Rocha of the Las Vegas Sun

reports. Amanda Moss of the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association
said open construction jobs in Las Vegas number more than 100,000. "We
have to look at solutions to bringing in immigrant labor that ... wants
to swing the hammer, because those employees are just not there," Moss
said. Expanding work permit access for spouses of U.S. citizens would
help.

Thanks for reading,  

Dan 

**P.S.** Catholic communities are supporting migrant families through
the church's Welcome Circles program, reports Marietha Góngora V. of
OSV News
.
Separately, as Catholics celebrate Holy Week, Meghan J. Clark reflects
about lessons of hope from migrant families during Lent in U.S.
Catholic
. 

** **

** **

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