A U.S. citizen is back with his family today after apparently being wrongly detained in Florida, reports Jackie Llanos of the Florida Phoenix.
Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, 20, was arrested by a state trooper during a traffic stop for allegedly illegally entering Florida as an "unauthorized alien."
After being shown Lopez-Gomez's birth certificate and Social Security card in court, a Leon County judge said, "[T]he court can clearly see the watermark to show that this is indeed an authentic document."
The judge dismissed the misdemeanor charge but said she lacked jurisdiction to release him amid an Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold request. But federal officials reunited Lopez-Gomez with his mother last night.
Separately, a federal appeals court had stark words yesterday in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, report Michael Kunzelman, Eric Tucker and Alanna Durkin Richer of the Associated Press.
The administration is "asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order," reads the opinion, written by a Ronald Reagan appointee.
A glimmer of a different potential approach: The president is acknowledging that some immigrants here unlawfully could have a place here, Michelle L. Price of the Associated Press. He also spoke of helping the hotel and agriculture industries with their workforce needs, though with no set plan, Price notes.
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].
HERE LEGALLY — Sherlie Joseph and Kevenson Jean came to the United States from Haiti via the humanitarian parole program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans. Productive members of their small Texas community, they now face uncertainty as the administration tries to cancel the program, Carrie McKean writes in Christianity Today. Meanwhile, Rick Brunson of Central Florida Public Media reports on the Evangelical Immigration Table’s recent letter to the Trump administration encouraging a more "humanitarian and compassionate approach to immigration policy."
$44 BILLION AT STAKE — Local communities are likely to experience economic harm as the administration revokes student visas and foreign students’ interest in studying here wanes, Barnet Sherman writes for The Conversation. International students contribute $44 billion to the U.S. economy, and economists count education as the United States’ 10th largest export, Sherman writes. The Trump administration has canceled the visas of more than 1,300 students to date.
PROTECTIONS THREATENED — As many resettled Afghans see their protections in the United States threatened, the Council on National Security and Immigration released a statement urging the administration to uphold our commitments to our allies. Resettled Afghans in the Raleigh, North Carolina, area received emails this week instructing them to leave the country within one week or face enforcement action, as Sydnee Scofield of ABC 11 reports.
For more on local welcome and impacts:
CITIZENSHIP — A celebration for 25 new U.S. citizens in Detroit serves as a message of welcome in a difficult time for immigrants, reports Nour Rahal of the Detroit Free Press. "It’s now time for me to give back to the United States," new citizen Jainaba Faal said. Similarly, volunteers in Boston recently assisted hundreds of green card holders with citizenship applications amid increasing fears, reports Laura Crimaldi of the Boston Globe.
P.S. Once a refugee, now an Air Force veteran after 25 years of service: Read Trinh Warner’s story as reported by Steve Spriester of KSAT.
