A new report highlights the increase in state-level anti-immigrant legislation over the past four years, write Camilo Montoya-Galvez and Fin Gómez of CBS News.
The analysis by the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) counted a total of 233 state bills in 2024 compared to 132 in 2023 and 64 in 2022. Thes legislation includes policies around cooperation efforts between state law enforcement and federal immigration authorities as well as the criminalization of unauthorized entry into the country, among other topics.
"You really see activist governors and attorneys general that are basically trying to address these issues on their own, instead of, quite frankly, working in a bipartisan way through Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform," said Juan Proaño, LULAC's CEO.
The overall shift in rhetoric to increasingly anti-immigrant vitriol is a good way for politicians to mask the systems’ failures, writes Yvonne Su, director of the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University, for The Conversation.
"We can fall for the political distractions, or we can resist attempts to blame immigrants for the failures of governments," Su concludes.
On that note, take a look at this analysis on the differing immigration policies espoused by the former president, Donald Trump and Vice President Harris, published by a team at PBS Hour.
Separately, Philip Bump writes in his column for The Washington Post on how speaking out against immigration is ignoring its key role in economic prosperity for America.
"What’s critical to note here is that American prosperity is intertwined with historic immigration patterns — and that, moving forward, immigration will be essential to continued prosperity," writes Bump.
Welcome to Friday’s edition of The Forum Daily. I’m Clara Villatoro, the Forum’s strategic communications assistant VP, and the great Forum Daily team also includes Jillian Clark, Dan Gordon and Ally Villarreal. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected].
BEACON — In Springfield, Ohio, community faith leaders gathered to speak out against hatred towards immigrants after false and racist allegations were made against local Haitians earlier this week, reports Kathryn Mobley of WYSO. "We hope that if we still stand together, and we believe in each other, one day we will be the beacon of the world as a community in Springfield," Pastor Viles Dorsainvil, director of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center. Matthew Soerens, coordinator of the Evangelical Immigration Table, uses Ohio's recent events as an unfortunate opportunity to reflect on the Christian responsibility of not spreading falsehoods, in an op-ed for Religion News.
AFTER THE WAIT — After three years of waiting and then journeying to the United States, the Safis, an Afghan family, have finally found a new home in Atlanta, reports Lautaro Grinspan of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Arif and Zenab Safi and their four children were able to come to safety thanks to the expansion of the U.S. refugee resettlement program.
Elsewhere in welcome, both locally and internationally:
HUMANITY — At a recent event, immigration advocate Sister Norma Pimentel expressed her hope that Americans could see humanity in migrant children at the border, reports Mark Wingfield of Baptist News Global. Pimentel said that our humanity and our recognition of other’s humanity is something "we must be able to not let others steal from us."
VOTING — As house Republicans continue to push the SAVE Act to address unfounded allegations of noncitizen voting, data debunk their claims, reports Zachary B. Wolf of CNN. Christa Case Bryant and Sophie Hills of The Christian Science Monitor also present a good analysis of the claims. For more information, check out our policy team's paper on this topic.
