Estimates of workers soon retiring, the mismatch between available workers and the kinds of jobs in demand, and the decrease in working-age men in the workforce are among growing labor market challenges, according to the study from Lightcast. 

Immigrants likely will be key to countering the problem, Tanzi writes. Already, according to the report, a quarter of doctors in the U.S. were born elsewhere. We’ve written about how immigration can help counter labor and demographic challenges. 

On a local level, the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber's 2024 State of the Region report, released yesterday, demonstrates that metro-area growth will depend in part on more immigrants, reports Randy Tucker of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Other metro areas — including Columbus, Ohio, just up the road — have attracted more "foreign-born workers who help ease labor shortages and stimulate the economy with their spending." 

And in Nebraska, a new coalition of more than 60 wide-ranging organizations, including many ag and business associations, says the state’s prosperity depends on immigrants, reports Henry J. Cordes of the Omaha World-Herald.  

Separately, in an op-ed for WHYY, Anuj Gupta, president and CEO of The Welcoming Center, and economist Zeke Hernandez write that for cities such as Philadelphia, "We can either choose growth or decline. If we choose the former, immigrants will be front and center in getting us there."  

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

MISLEADING — The brochure migrants in Arizona are picking up "offers ‘free relocation support’ and transportation for migrants in the United States." At the root of it are Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and his controversial program to relocate migrants, reports Melissa Del Bosque of The Border Chronicle. "It’s pretty crazy that they’re using Florida taxpayer money to do this, especially in Nogales," said Mohammad Abdollahi, who works at a nonprofit. " ... This whole thing is just manufactured." 

FARMWORKERS — Legal challenges have blocked a new regulation from the Biden administration meant to protect migrant farmworkers on H-2A visas, reports Lautaro Grinspan of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The regulation would allow such farmworkers to organize without the threat of retaliation, among other policies. A federal judge has blocked it in Georgia and 16 other Republican-led states after they challenged the regulation. Two additional lawsuits have since been filed, in Kentucky and North Carolina. 

SPEAKING OUT — "They need to stop," Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) said of false claims against migrants, in a PBS NewsHour interview with Amna Nawaz, produced by Kyle Midura. "We’re living the danger that misinformation and created stories leads to," Springfield, Ohio, City Manager Bryan Heck told Kris Maher, Valerie Bauerlein and Tawnell D. Hobbs of The Wall Street Journal, who take a close look at the effects this harmful rhetoric has had in the city over the past 10 days. "We stand by our immigrant community," Dayton Police Chief Kamran Afzal [a member of the Law Enforcement Immigration Task Force] said, per Rhona Tarrant of CBS News. 

BORDER EFFORTS — Experts say the hundreds of National Guardsmen the governors of Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska have sent to the U.S.-Mexico border have little to no effect on what happens there, reports Kallie Cox of KCUR. The states’ efforts, meant to assist with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) Operation Lone Star, have come at a cost of more than $7 million total to date, Cox reports. 

Thanks for reading,  

Dan