Amid the current narratives around immigration, towns on the U.S.-Mexico border show relative calm. A team of reporters from the Associated Press and The Texas Tribune, in partnership with PBS’ Frontline, came together to witness realities in five border cities.
Reporters spent 24 hours apiece in Laredo, McAllen, El Paso, Eagle Pass and Brownsville, meeting migrants from all over the world who are on journeys to new lives. The team analyzes the impacts of recent policies and rhetoric — and the potential effects of the election on immigration.
Separately, Dennis Aftergut of Lawyers for American Democracy writes in The xxxxxx that just on a practical level, former President Donald Trump’s mass immigration plans would undermine the United States economy.
Analyzing data and media reports, Aftergut explains that mass deportation would exacerbate labor shortages in essential sectors and likely would make our food more expensive. "It would likely be not more than six months before the economy would cave in on itself," he warns.
Meanwhile, in Ohio, the advocacy organization Haitian Bridge Alliance is asking local authorities to charge Trump and Sen. JD Vance with criminal offenses following the two’s claims about Springfield’s Haitian community, Jessica Orozco of the Springfield News-Sun reports.
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, Soledad Gassó Parker, Cam Luong, Ally Villarreal and Clara Villatoro. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected].
LEGACY — In The Nation, Gaby Del Valle sketches out the history that has led to modern anti-immigration rhetoric and policies. Del Valle analyzes anti-immigrant networks post-World War II and their evolution to current groups and the narratives more and more politicians are espousing, thanks in large part to John Tanton, who "spent decades building a network of anti-immigration groups from the ground up, transforming post–World War II nativism from a fringe view held by a small group of white supremacists into a mainstream political movement."
‘BOGUS CLAIMS’ — "Undocumented immigrant voting has never been an actual problem," Jennifer Rubin writes, in bold and italics, in her Washington Post column. "The media must resist the urge to treat bogus claims as legitimate and must refuse to characterize the election as ‘in dispute’ simply because Republicans refuse to accept the results," she writes.
FARMWORKERS — Legislation in California will help farmworkers in the state, including migrants, reports Alan Riquelmy of Courthouse News Service. One, Assembly Bill 2240, "ensures that farmworkers and their families are not separated because of outdated policies and that their children's education is not interrupted," author Joaquin Arambula (D) said. The bill includes a provision to study keeping some migrant farmworker housing open year-round, rather than forcing turnover annually, reports Mathew Miranda of The Sacramento Bee.
NEW CITIZENS — A new Utah initiative aims to increase the number of newly naturalized citizens in the state, reports Tim Vandenack of KSL. "Everyone can agree that having people address their status and become naturalized U.S. citizens is a win-win, both for immigrants who are eligible but also for our communities across the state," said Natalie El-Deiry, director of the Center for Global Talent and New Americans, under the Governor's Office of Economic Opportunity. Jennie writes about that win-win in a letter to the editor of the Columbus Dispatch.
P.S. The Maine Department of Education will distribute books about the immigrant experience to school districts throughout the state, reports Eesha Pendharkar of the Maine Morning Star.
