Taking a moment to honor the memory of Fernando Valenzuela, who has died at 63. He was "a hero for Latinos following baseball," in the words of his fellow broadcaster Jaime Jarrín, as reported by Megan Garvey of LAist. Valenzuela became a U.S. citizen in 2015, as Beth Harris of the Associated Press reports.
In tough news of a different sort, Tom Homan, former acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during President Donald Trump’s administration, is part of a group traveling across the country and promoting misinformation about the border, a multi-outlet team reports.
"Trump comes back in January, I’ll be on his heels … and I will run the biggest deportation force this country has ever seen," Homan said during an immigration panel in Washington, D.C., over the summer. Trump already promised that he will bring Homan back if he wins.
Separately, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Trump’s plans including mass deportation would reduce Social Security revenue by $1.3 trillion, Greg McKenna reports in Fortune. And researchers at The Brookings Institution compare projected GDP growth under the next potential administrations.
At a campaign event in Arizona, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) vowed to end programs that allow hundreds of thousands of immigrants to live and work here legally, reports Chris Cameron of The New York Times. "[W]e’re going to stop doing mass parole. We’re going to stop doing mass grants of Temporary Protected Status," Vance said. TPS alone protects about 864,000 immigrants in the United States today.
Last but not least, a team at The Marshall Project has quite the comprehensive fact-check of Trump’s immigration statements — more than 12,000 of them.
Welcome to Wednesday’s edition of The Forum Daily. I’m Dan Gordon, the Forum’s strategic communications VP. The great Forum Daily team also includes Jillian Clark, Soledad Gassó Parker, Camilla Luong, Clara Villatoro and Becka Wall. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected].
LACKING PROTECTIONS — While immigrant workers continue to fill labor gaps in crucial American industries, legal limbo means many lack worker protections, reports Nicole Foy of ProPublica. Foy follows the story of Elmer De León Pérez, a welder who died on the job and whose family did not receive financial assistance afterward because he lacked legal status. "Pérez embodied many aspects of the immigration debate," Foy writes. "He had exactly the skills that American companies are desperate for.
TECHNOLOGY — Businesses can address workforce challenges through workforce development, including for immigrants, Yigal Kerszenbaum of JFFVentures writes in Real Clear Education. Though many immigrants are skilled and educated, they face language barriers and other obstacles. Some businesses are offering English courses with the help of emerging tech, as well as childcare or transportation services. [Our own English at Work program helps employees at participating companies build up their skills in the workplace context.]
DATA MISUSE — Politicians continue to misuse data about crime in the United States to place the blame on immigrants and migrants, Daniel P. Mears and Bryan Holmes, professors of criminology and criminal justice at Florida State University, write in a Los Angeles Times op-ed. In his Washington Post column, David Von Drehle writes about his experience hearing and investigating anti-immigrant rumors focused on his hometown of Aurora, Colorado.
STRENGTH — "Real policy solutions with bipartisan support could improve border security while respecting the inherent dignity of human life," North Carolina evangelical Pastor Graham Aitken writes in the Watauga Democrat. And immigrants "strengthen our community fabric," Indiana Lutheran Pastor Joe Ferry writes in The Journal-Gazette.
