Millions of immigrants are facing excruciating decisions: Risk detention and deportation as the Trump administration removes protections, or risk their lives in returning to their countries of origin, reports a team at the Miami Herald.
Many are choosing the risk, hoping and praying for a path forward in the United States.
"If you cut open my heart, you’d see the American in me," says Harold Renard, who fled Haiti in 2022 after gangs took over his farm.
Separately, a federal judge who ordered a halt on the removal of Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador says "probable cause exists to find the [U.S.] Government in criminal contempt," report Rebecca Beitsch and Zach Schonfeld of The Hill.
"The Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders — especially by officials of a coordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it," the judge noted.
Finally, a government memo affirms the government’s ability to send noncriminals to the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, reports Camilo Montoya-Galvez of CBS News. The memo includes migrants involved in "a nexus to a transnational criminal organization" — which could include the many who paid smugglers as part of their journey.
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].
MEDICARE DATABASE — In a request deeply concerning to health officials, the Trump administration is seeking to use a Medicare database to obtain addresses sought by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), report Hannah Natanson, Rachel Roubein and Dan Diamond of The Washington Post. It remains unclear how much data of interest would be available to ICE, as undocumented people are ineligible for Medicare.
PRESSURE — The Trump administration is pushing to allow immigration judges to drop asylum cases without a hearing if the case’s request form is "legally deficient," reports Ximena Bustillo of NPR. The repercussions especially could affect people without legal representation, as judges would be allowed to make decisions on asylum cases based on a form that can takes even experienced attorneys 50 to 70 hours to prepare, Bustillo reports.
BIRTHRIGHT — The great-grandson of the man at the center of an 1898 Supreme Court decision that set the precedent for birthright citizenship spoke to CBS News’ Kenny Choi. Norman Wong, whose great-grandfather Wong Kim Ark sued the U.S. to establish that the 14th Amendment guaranteed his citizenship, tells Choi he hopes Americans will recognize their unity as a people. See the Forum's new summary of a bill that aims to end birthright citizenship.
BORDER REALITY — As the administration requests a billionaire budget for border security, some border towns in Arizona and Texas lack basic services such as health care and safe water, reports Anjeanette Damon and Perla Trevizo of ProPublica and The Texas Tribune. About 30,000 border residents in Texas lack reliable drinking water. "[F]or us, I feel like it’s not border security," said Karen Gonzalez, a local advocate.
CONTINUE THE WORK — In the late 1970s, the church as Nhung Hurst and her family were given a new chance at life as the church sponsored them to resettle in the United States. Now Hurst urges the same generosity in a Religion News Service op-ed. "The church paved a way for me to discover my purpose and build a meaningful life. Christ followers everywhere must continue that work," she writes.
