The Trump administration is considering bringing back a program that allows state and local law enforcement to arrest individuals they suspect of being undocumented, including during traffic stops, reports Maria Sacchetti of The Washington Post.  

The Obama administration stopped using this "task force model" in 2012 "following multiple federal investigations, lawsuits and complaints that local sheriffs’ deputies and others abused their authority, harassed immigrants and subjected them to inhumane conditions in jails," Sacchetti notes.  

"As we’ve seen whenever these have been used, they’ve led to all sorts of illegal stops and racial profiling and just unlawful enforcement activity by officers who don’t really know immigration law well enough," said Spencer Amdur, a senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. 

Meanwhile, Dallas County commissioners held a meeting with lawyers to understand federal deportation operations and what their local officials might have to do to cooperate, reports Marina Trahan Martinez of KERA News. 

While the Trump administration initially said it would focus mass deportation efforts on violent criminals, scores of immigrants — authorized as well as unauthorized — have been detained despite having no criminal record, reports Sergio Martínez-Beltrán of NPR.  

Carlos, 18 and living in Cedar Park, Texas, was taken into custody Jan. 26 after entering the country lawfully in November. His mother, Marian, said authorities did not show a warrant or other supporting evidence materials behind his arrest. 

"We have behaved, we've done things the right way, and that's why we didn't fear we were going to go through this," said Carlos’ father, Juan.  

Welcome to Friday’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]. 

CHICAGO — The Trump administration is asking a judge to overturn laws in Chicago and Illinois that limit collaboration between local law enforcement and federal immigration enforcement officials, report Heather Cherone and Amanda Vinicky of WTTW Chicago. "Illinois will defend our law and prioritize police resources for fighting crime while enabling state law enforcement to assist with arresting violent criminals," said Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D). 

BIRTHRIGHT — Yet another federal judge, a Ronald Reagan appointee in Washington state, has blocked the president’s executive order ending birthright citizenship, report Katie Campbell and Amy Radil of KUOW. "The 14th Amendment secures the blessings of liberty to our posterity by bestowing on all those born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction the rights of citizenship," the judge said. "We are all citizens subject to the rule of law. No amount of policy debate can change that."  

AT WORK — Employers are preparing for immigration enforcement actions at the workplace, Andrew Kreighbaum of Bloomberg Law reports. The health care, education and faith sectors face particular urgency with arrests now permitted at "sensitive locations," Kreighbaum notes. The bigger picture, reports Dean Kuipers of Capital & Main: Demographic realities mean that migrants will be ever more crucial to nations’ economic growth. We have more on those realities. 

FAMILIES’ FUTURE — What military veteran Will Selber is hearing from our Afghan allies is heart-wrenching; read his account in The xxxxxx. After President Trump stopped refugee entrance into the United States, Azizgul Ahmadi and her sister are just two of many Afghan evacuees waiting to reunite with their families, reports Roxy Todd of Radio IQ. In October, Ahmadi received word that her parents would be able to leave Afghanistan and join their daughters in Virginia. Now that’s on hold indefinitely. 

Recently in local welcome: 

Thanks for reading,  

Dan