Some relatively good news to start: A second federal judge has blocked the president’s order to stop birthright citizenship, reports Molly Bohannon of Forbes — this time indefinitely while court challenges proceed.
After a hearing in Maryland, a U.S. district judge sided with the immigrant rights groups arguing against the order.
The previous day, Stephanie Sy and Maea Lenei Buhre of PBS News Hour spoke with descendants of Wong Kim Ark, whose citizenship fight resulted in Supreme Court precedent. And on The New York Times’ podcast "The Opinions," columnist Carlos Lozada and opinion editor-at-large Aaron Retica discuss why the Trump administration is going after birthright citizenship.
Elsewhere, the effects of mass deportation on food prices and American workers are the subject of Kai Ryssdal and Kimberly Adams’ conversation with Ted Genoways, a reporter with the Food and Environment Reporting Network, on a new episode of "Make Me Smart" from Marketplace.
In Nebraska, migrant workers in the agricultural industry are concerned for their futures — and so are their employers, reports John King of CNN. Other sectors are at risk, too: One in five child care workers in the U.S. are immigrants, reports Jackie Mader of The Hechinger Report.
"We’re already starting from a place where there’s not enough child care, programs are struggling and the workforce is already experiencing incredible stress," said Lea Austin of the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at the University of California, Berkeley. "We can only expect that this is going to further devastate the entire early care and education ecosystem."
Welcome to Thursday’s edition of The Forum Daily. I’m Dan Gordon, the Forum’s VP of strategic communications, and the great Forum Daily team also includes Jillian Clark, Soledad Gassó Parker, Broc Murphy, Clara Villatoro and Becka Wall. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected].
EVANGELICAL SUPPORT — A new study from Lifeway Research finds that most evangelical Christians support legal pathways and protections for people seeking refuge, reports Liam Adams of The Tennessean. Among respondents, 61% of whom voted for President Trump, 70% said the U.S. "has a moral responsibility to accept refugees" and 64% say "Christians have a responsibility to care sacrificially for refugees and foreigners." "Evangelicals’ care for refugees and immigrants is as steady as their political preference, but some leaders may not be listening," said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research.
IOWA SUPPORT — In conservative northwest Iowa, views on immigration are nuanced — and local faith and community leaders are working to build the community’s trust and promote legal pathways for immigrants, reports Sheila Brummer of Iowa Public Radio. Meanwhile, in Des Moines, nonprofit Refugee and Immigrant Voices in Action launched a new magazine that aims to highlight stories of the immigrant communities across the state, reports Phillip Sitter of the Des Moines Register.
SERVICE DIMINISHES — Nonprofit Kentucky Refugee Ministries (KRM) is facing potential closure after Trump’s executive order suspending refugee resettlement programs, cutting 90% of the organization’s funding, report Stephanie Kuzydym and Keely Doll of the Louisville Courier Journal. KRM has been serving refugee communities for 35 years, providing services for more than 40,000 people. "Behind the numbers are clients and people and families who are depending on these services," said Amber Duke, executive director of ACLU Kentucky.
MORE THAN PAWNS — In South Florida, the Venezuelan immigrant community is preparing to challenge the Trump administration’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands of people, report Verónica Egui Brito and Syra Ortiz Blanes of the Miami Herald. The Herald’s Editorial Board writes, "Law-abiding Venezuelans should not be grouped with a minority of bad actors. They are more than Trump’s political pawns and action is needed now to allow them to remain in the U.S. and South Florida."
