The Forum Daily | Friday, March 14, 2025https://immigrationforum.org/

**THE FORUM DAILY**The Trump administration in the upcoming days is planning to invoke an 18th-century wartime law to move its mass deportation plans faster, report Priscilla Alvarez, Jennifer Hansler and Alayna Treene of CNN [link removed]. 

The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 grants the president broad authority to target and expel undocumented immigrants. The administration plans to target the Venezuelan crime group Tren de Aragua (TDA) and lay the foundation for expedited removals, CNN notes. 

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has spent nearly $2.4 million on a domestic and international ad campaign aimed at persuading undocumented immigrants to leave voluntarily the country and advising would-be migrants that they should not attempt to enter the U.S., reports Alicia A. Caldwell of Bloomberg [link removed]. 

Individuals waiting for their asylum cases or other immigration processes fear their routine immigration check-ins could lead to being deported, report Valerie Gonzalez, Cedar Attanasio and Sophia Tareen of the Associated Press [link removed]. 

Separately, yesterday, the Trump administration’s lawyers requested [link removed] the Supreme Court to limit decisions by three lower courts that halted the executive order ending birthright citizenship, reports Abbie VanSickle of The New York Times [link removed]. 

Welcome to Friday’s edition of The Forum Daily. I’m Clara Villatoro, the Forum’s assistant VP of strategic communications, and the great Forum Daily team also includes Jillian Clark, Soledad Gassó Parker, Dan Gordon, Broc Murphy 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]. 

**AT CAPACITY**- Federal immigration officials are searching for more bed space to hold immigrants after they ran out, reports Jeff Arnold of NewsNation [link removed]. According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, the detention facilities are currently at capacity holding 47,600 migrants. Recent data [link removed] shows that 52.1% of migrants in federal custody during the first month of the administration did not have criminal records, Arnold notes. Texas is one of the states adding thousands of detention beds in privately-run facilities, repurposing some of them to detain families, reports Alejandro Serrano of the Texas Tribune [link removed]. 

**AT RISK** – An expected travel ban for some countries, including Afghanistan, has some American veterans scrambling to bring as many Afghan allies as possible to the U.S. before the official announcement, reports Miriam Jordan of The New York Times [link removed]. The suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program has already created precarity for many Afghans awaiting safety, Jordan notes. In a recent letter [link removed] to President Trump, three Republican Members of Congress wrote, "for many Afghans in the pipeline, staying in Afghanistan is a death sentence." 

More on refugee and immigrants support efforts:  

* In Wisconsin, a group of chefs created a dining experience to bring the community together to support of refugee assistance groups that lost federal funds (Megan Lee, WTMJ4 [link removed]). 

* Iowa City will be hosting "The Open Arms Benefit Concert" an event to support and celebrate their immigrant and refugee neighbors (Jessica Rish, Iowa City Press-Citizen [link removed]). 

* In Ohio, some organizations and volunteers continue helping refugee families despite federal funding cuts (Tessa DiTirro, News 5 Cleveland [link removed]). 

ABANDONED – Changes in U.S. immigration policy sending migrants and asylum seekers to third countries are raising concerns on humane treatment of those individuals, report a team at ProPublica [link removed]. Separately, Ryan Brown of Christianity Today [link removed] reflects on how the halt of refugee and asylum seeker programs in the U.S. are closing the doors for persecuted Christians who have nowhere to turn. "American Christians can’t lose sight that real people will be profoundly impacted if the U.S. chooses careful reform and instead accept the complete suspension of these programs designed to help those in real danger," he writes. 

**VITAL** – Lawmakers in Vermont are considering creating an Office of New Americans to strengthen services for the state’s 30,000 immigrants, reports Elodie Reed for the Vermont Public [link removed]. The effort has taken on renewed urgency as refugee resettlement agencies dramatically cut staffing in response to federal funding freezes, Reed highlights. The Senate Government Operations Committee voted unanimously Thursday to advance a bill to study the creation of the office. 

Thanks for reading, 

Clara 

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