THE FORUM DAILY
Yesterday the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officially announced the end of Temporary Protected Status for Afghans in the U.S., reports Rebecca Beitsch of The Hill.
The announcement ends protections for more than 8,200 Afghans living in the United States, effective July 12. Despite the claim of improved conditions in the Taliban-run country, threats of violence and subjugation remain reality for many, especially women and members of minority groups, as Brianna Tucker of The Washington Post reports.
And #AfghanEvac Shawn VanDiver said yesterday, "What the administration has done today is betray people who risked their lives for America, built lives here and believed in our promises."
For Afghan Christians, returning means facing "a Taliban regime likely to kill them for their faith in Jesus," former Southern Baptist Convention President Bryant Wright wrote in a weekend op-ed for Fox News.
Separately, the president’s executive order to end birthright citizenship is headed to the Supreme Court this week, report Henry Gass and Sarah Matusek of The Christian Science Monitor. The Migration Policy Institute and Penn State University’s Population Research Institute just posted an analysis showing that ending birthright citizenship would increase the unauthorized population by 2.7 million by 2045.
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, 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].
CONTROVERSIAL RESETTLEMENT — On the same day the administration announced the end of protections for Afghans, 54 white South Africans were admitted to the United States as refugees, reports Sareen Habeshian of Axios — and the Episcopal Church announced the end of its 40-year resettlement collaboration with the government, reports Jack Jenkins of NPR. "In light of our church's steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we are not able to take this step," said the Most Rev. Sean W. Rowe.
KEPT APART — Hugs Not Walls, an annual event at the U.S.-Mexico border for separated families to reunite on Mother’s Day, was canceled after the Trump administration revoked its permit, reports Jeff Abbott of the El Paso Times. Although the families could not embrace, participants stood on both sides of the border to protest the newly militarized buffer zone at the border. Elsewhere in the El Paso Times, Forum Fellow Michael DeBruhl analyzes the pitfalls of militarizing the border.
SYSTEM FAILURE — Diego, a Venezuelan immigrant, is among millions who have been waiting more than a decade for their asylum application to be processed in the United States, report Avery Travis and Dalton Huey of KXAN. "We need to be able to speed things up so that we can have a more efficient and humane process," Jennie told Travis and Huey.
‘NOT WITH SILENCE’ — American Christians must remember the lesson’s learned from silence 80 years ago during the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II when considering the plight of immigrants today, Raymond Chang writes in Christianity Today. "This is the moment for the church to rise — not with fear, but with faith. Not with silence, but with solidarity. And across the country, faith-based organizations are doing just that," Chang writes.
P.S. Katherine Kokal kicks off a week of stories in WUWM 89.7’s "Making Wisconsin: Our Immigration History" series.
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