The Forum Daily | Tuesday, February 25, 2025https://immigrationforum.org/

**THE FORUM DAILY**

All 67 county sheriffs in Florida have signed an agreement to work alongside Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, reports Nancy Guan of WUSF [link removed]. 

The agreement is part of efforts to comply with new state legislation. Participants will be part of the 287(g) program, which broadens the authority of state and local law enforcement.  

ICE is making similar deals across the country, reports Daniel Rivero of WLRN [link removed]. Owyhee County, Idaho, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office in Nevada and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation are among the other entities agreeing to work alongside ICE.  

At the same time, the Florida legislation makes it more difficult for undocumented people who are victims or witnesses of crimes to come forward, reports Yacob Reyes of Axios Tampa Bay [link removed]. 

New guidelines tighten the criteria for when law enforcement can protect information around an individual’s immigration status. Officers would now need proof that the individual was "necessary" to the case.  

"What is deemed 'necessary' is itself a subjective determination, which means that someone who's trying earnestly to be helpful may not be perceived as necessary for solving the crime and could be deported," said Asad L. Asad, assistant professor of sociology at Stanford University. 

Here again is our new resource [link removed] on local and state cooperation with federal immigration authorities. And in December, the Law Enforcement Immigration Task Force posted "Best Practices for Law Enforcement to Preserve Community Trust in the Context of Increased Immigration Enforcement." [link removed] 

Welcome to Tuesday’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] mailto:[email protected]. 

**RIGHTS CARDS** — Small red cards with information on key rights and protections for immigrants are in high demand amid the administration's wave of executive actions, reports Miriam Jordan of The New York Times [link removed]. Separately, health care workers at a South Los Angeles hospital are learning all they can about immigration law in case of a raid, reports Jackie Fortiér of NPR [link removed].  

**IRANIAN CHRISTIANS** — Artemis Ghasemzadeh journeyed to Christianity, then to the United States. Now she’s in a migrant detention camp near the Darién jungle, Farnaz Fassihi and Hamed Aleaziz report movingly in The New York Times [link removed]. Iranian Christians will "definitely be harmed when they go back," immigration attorney Hillary Walsh told Rick Jervis of USA Today [link removed]. As the Dallas Morning News [link removed] editorial board points out, the president once vowed to protect Christians in the United States. "Aren’t Christians fleeing other nations under the threat of death because of their religion also worth protecting?" the board asks. 

**FROM PROSECUTOR TO SUPPORTER** — Veronica Cardenas now supports immigrants after years of witnessing immigrants' challenges as a prosecutor for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), reports Kelly Burch of Business Insider [link removed]. Cardenas expresses her discomfort with the current immigration system and said, "I still believe we need immigration laws, but they need to be enforced with fairness and justice." 

**COMFORT AND LESSONS** — Local ministries continue to assist migrants traveling through Mexico to the United States, reports Sharla Megilligan of Christianity Today [link removed]. Mario Xoca and Meg Flores of Isaiah 55 Ministries in Reynosa, Mexico, create a safe environment for migrant children and their families as they wait for their next steps. Providing bible classes, including some in sign language, the group is just one many attempting to give comfort to uncertain families in this time. 

Thanks for reading,  

Dan 

**P.S.** Read about the Wisconsin dairy farmers who make an annual trip to Mexico to visit their employees’ families. Ruth Conniff has the story in the Wisconsin Examiner [link removed]. 

[link removed]

[link removed]    [link removed]    [link removed]    [link removed]

[link removed]

Unsubscribe from this email list [link removed] or opt out from all Forum emails [link removed]

National Immigration Forum<br>10 G St NE<br>Suite 500<br>Washington, D.C. 20002<br>United States
www.immigrationforum.org [link removed]