The Forum Daily | Thursday, May 1, 2025https://immigrationforum.org/

**THE FORUM DAILY**A federal judge in California ordered that the federal government continue to fund legal assistance for unaccompanied migrant children as several lawsuits play out, reports Victoria Albert of The Wall Street Journal [link removed].  

In March, the Trump administration discontinued part of a contract that funded organizations providing such children with legal assistance. With about 26,000 children at risk of losing their legal representation, many organizations are suing against the decision. 

The administration agreed to resume offering funds for a shorter period of time. However, budget legislation currently in Congress could put those funds in jeopardy, reports Suzanne Gamboa of NBC News [link removed]. Congress has provided such funding since 2009. 

Jennie addressed the attack on help for these children in a Real Clear Politics [link removed] op-ed this week. "In our complicated and flawed immigration system, there are many points up for debate. Protecting children should not be one of them," she wrote. 

The House also is considering new or higher fees for migrants seeking refuge and work authorization, report Lauren Villagran and Riley Beggin of USA Today [link removed].  

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] mailto:[email protected]. 

**HOUSING PRICES** — In cities such as Charleston, South Carolina, home prices could rise if the administration continues to increase immigration enforcement, reports Justin Kollar of WCSC [link removed]. Immigrants make up nearly a third of the U.S. construction workforce, so increased deportation efforts likely would lead to labor shortages and higher costs, Kollar reports. "Right now, it’s a big ‘what if," but if tariffs continue and labor shortages worsen, prices are naturally going to go up," said real estate agent Sarah Pickard. 

**SOS** — A Haitian woman has died in ICE custody, reports Lauren Villagran of USA Today [link removed]. Marie Ange Blaise was 44 and detained at Krome North Processing Center in Miami. Separately, drone footage pictured Venezuelan detainees at the Bluebonnet Detention Facility in Texas shaping the letters "SOS" with their bodies 10 days after the Supreme Court temporarily blocked their deportations at the last minute, report Kristina Cooke and Ted Hesson of Reuters [link removed].   

For more developments regarding policies’ impacts: 

* A federal judge allowed the release of Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi from immigration custody while his deportation case is pending. (Ethan Weinstein, VTDigger [link removed]) 

* A Department of Homeland Security official testified in front of a federal judge about the Trump administration’s process of revoking international student visas, eliciting serious due process concerns from the judge. (Tierney Sneed, CNN [link removed]) 

* A Venezuelan man who was here lawfully under a humanitarian program was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents in Whitefish, Montana. (Tristan Scott and Zoë Buhrmaster, Flathead Beacon [link removed]) 

* New York magazine’s Intelligencer [link removed] has a rundown of United States citizens caught up in immigration enforcement. (Chas Danner) 

**RULE OF LAW** — Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier may face contempt charges after sending a letter to local police departments inviting officers to arrest immigrants under a law previously deemed unconstitutional by a district judge, reports Jackie Llanos of the Florida Phoenix [link removed]. Florida’s aggressive immigration enforcement has been affecting numerous communities across the state, as Patricia Mazzei of The New York Times [link removed] notes. 

**NEW RESEARCH** — A study [link removed] currently under peer review reinforces that undocumented immigrants "present lower risk factors for crime" than U.S. citizens, reports Adam Powell of the El Paso Times [link removed]. Researchers at the University of Texas at El Paso's Psychology Department Colloquium collaborated with the El Paso County Sheriff's Office and the El Paso County Criminal Justice Coordination on the study, Powell reports.  

Thanks for reading, 

Dan 

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