Q: Where among nations would the world’s current refugee population rank? Answer at the end of the final item.
Donald Trump has promised that one of his first steps in a second term in the White House would be to end birthright citizenship, reports Lawrence Hurley of NBC News. Advocates and legal experts say that "litigation is a certainty" should he try to do so.
In a video from May 2023, Trump said his first day in office would include an executive order ending the right for anyone born on U.S. soil to be recognized as a citizen automatically. Such an order would go against over a century of precedent, Hurley points out.
"It’s directly in the teeth of the 14th Amendment, it would essentially be an attempt to tear down one of the core constitutional protections that has been a key part of our country," said Omar Jadwat, a lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union.
Preserving birthright citizenship is one of the Forum’s six immigration principles for 2024 (and beyond), and in a post last month, Forum Senior Fellow Linda Chavez expanded on why this right is "fundamental to our understanding of what it means to be an American."
Jack Herrera of Politico reports that despite Trump’s campaign promise "to launch the largest deportation operation in the history of our country," removals and returns under the Biden administration have exceeded the number during Trump’s term. Trump would face logistical limitations should he attempt to carry out his promise, Herrera writes.
Meanwhile, Kamala Harris’ campaign manager implied that as president, Harris would keep President Biden’s recent asylum restrictions in place, reports Camilo Montoya-Galvez of CBS News.
Welcome to Monday’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].
CHINA — The increase in Chinese migration into the United States is testing the policies of President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Cate Cadell, Nick Miroff and Li Qiang report in The Washington Post. Their alluring multimedia piece follows the journeys of several families. Chinese migrants are decamping from tight political control and economic challenges, a continuing embarrassment to Xi Jinping’s government. At the same time, their arrival is challenging the U.S. government.
THE WHY — Difficult and restrictive legal pathways are one reason Chinese and other highly skilled foreign workers are arriving at the border, Youyou Zhou writes in a Washington Post column. "If the government really wanted to curtail illegal crossings, creating more legal pathways for migrants to work here should be the priority," Zhou writes.
NEW ACCUSATIONS — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) wants to question a third nonprofit at the border as he targets organizations that assist migrants, reports Sandra Sanchez of Border Report. Paxton's office has requested a hearing to depose nonprofit organization Team Brownsville. No hearing date has been set.
DREAMS LOST, AND FOUND — As global mass migration continues, the 37 members of the Olympic refugee team show what it takes to recover lost dreams, reports Megan Janetsky of the Associated Press. "[P]eople that have often lost everything can gain back dignity, identity and give back to the communities hosting them," said U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. Yiech Pur Biel, a 2016 Olympian originally from South Sudan and now living in Nebraska, "hopes the team can ‘bring back the dream of refugees’ and ‘[show] what refugees can do.’"
