The Forum Daily | Friday, January 3, 2025https://immigrationforum.org/
**THE FORUM DAILY**
Happy New Year! We’re bringing you a slightly longer version of the Daily today as we catch up on the past couple of weeks.
We’re also getting the popcorn ready for today’s swearing-in of the 119th Congress. With a bundle of legislative priorities in line, immigration is high on the list.
House Republicans are including five immigration-centered measures in a package of rules to start, reports Chris Johnson of Roll Call [link removed]. The package comprises bills that, among other actions, would restrict federal funds for municipalities' programs that benefit undocumented immigrants.
Speaking of the House, Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-New York) argues for meeting in the middle where possible — including with the president-elect — to meet Americans’ demands for solutions on issues including immigration. "Immigration must be governed by the rule of law while protecting immigrant families from fear and ensuring our economy is kept stable while treating human beings like human beings," Suozzi writes in The New York Times [link removed].
That would be in keeping with the Forum’s own principles [link removed], which remain timely.
The need for foreign-born workers in the tech industry is sure to be on Congress’ radar after Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy highlighted it, as Andrew Howard and Samantha Latson of Politico [link removed] report. More restrictionist supporters of the president-elect disagree. The heated debate centers on H1-B visas, on which Aimee Picchi of CBS News [link removed] offers details.
Welcome to Friday’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, Clara Villatoro and Becka Wall. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at
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[email protected].
**GROWTH** — Immigrants remain a big part of U.S. population growth, reports Tim Henderson of Stateline [link removed]. The 3.3 million new residents were "buoyed by a 21% increase in net immigration," per new Census Bureau data. "It’s going to be very welcome in a lot of places that would not be gaining many people or [would be] losing people because of lower fertility and higher deaths," said William Frey, a Brookings Institution demographer.
**SETTLING IN** — Last summer, Shafi Amani talked about his family’s long journey from Afghanistan to the United States. Recently, Tom Bowman and Lauren Hodges of NPR [link removed] revisited Amani and other resettled Afghans as they settle in.
Recently in local welcome:
* The public school system in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is helping Afghan Americans and hundreds of other resettled students. (Stephen Pingry, Tulsa World [link removed])
* In Cleveland, Praxis Fiber Workshop offers a space for Afghan women to build community. (Joey Morona, Cleveland.com [link removed])
* Read the inspiring story of residents of Stone Ridge, New York (pop. 1,900 or so) who helped welcome two Afghan families. (David Wallis, The Guardian [link removed])
**CHURCH FEARS** — Pastor Julio Barquero is trying to offer hope to his Houston-based Hispanic congregation as the incoming Trump administration promises ICE raids, report Janet Miranda and Eric Killelea of Chron [link removed]. A church in Chicago has put in-person Spanish-language services on hold amid fears, reports Billal Rahman of Newsweek [link removed]. And many immigrant families nationwide are preparing for worst-case scenarios, especially with the expected policy change to allow enforcement actions in churches, schools and hospitals, reports Nicole Acevedo of NBC News [link removed].
**DACA, TPS ANXIETY** — Dreamers are among those making contingency plans, reports Jim Carlton of The Wall Street Journal [link removed]. For medical student and DACA recipient Katherine Narvaez, "It is very defeating to see I have sacrificed so much — I am at the hospital 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. — that I am doing the same thing my peers are doing, and they will be able to go on with their careers." Meanwhile, the Miami Herald [link removed] editorial board writes that a pending proposal before the Florida state legislature to phase-out in-state tuition for Dreamers would be "unjust and shortsighted." Temporary Protected Status recipients also are uncertain about their futures, as Tyche Hendricks of KQED [link removed] and NPR [link removed] reports.
**SUCCESSES** — In Bennington, Vermont, the Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC) recently marked a year in town with gratitude and a party last month, reports Michael Albans of the Bennington Banner [link removed]. Although cuts again are likely under the second Trump administration, the rebuilding of the refugee resettlement system has allowed the highest number of U.S. placements in 30 years — for an extremely well-vetted group arriving under an orderly process, as Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio of the Boston Globe [link removed] reports.
Thanks for reading,
Dan
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