The Forum Daily | Friday, July 18, 2025https://immigrationforum.org/

THE FORUM DAILY
The American food industry is feeling the impacts of the administration’s mass deportation agenda, Rita Liu and Nina Lakhani of The Guardian [link removed] report. 

From farms in Texas to restaurants and food trucks in Los Angeles, workers are staying home, leaving businesses understaffed, Liu and Lakhani report. 

“They are scared, there are fewer opportunities, and they are no longer prospering here,” said Elizabeth Rodriguez, director of advocacy with the National Farm Worker Ministry. “Their fear will soon be seen in the harvest, when the quantities of produce are depleted.” 

The fear extends to the farm owners who are losing workers that in many cases they have trusted for years. Paul Heintz of The Boston Globe [link removed] recounts the story of John Morin, a Vermont farmer, who fears that he may become separated from the workers who he counts as his own family. 

In an op-ed for The Hill [link removed], Misty Chally, CEO of Capitol Solutions, LLC, and the Executive Director of the Critical Labor Coalition, writes on how labor shortages worsen as immigration policy continues changing and immigration enforcement efforts increase. 

Chally states that to ensure a stable labor supply and promote economic growth in an aging country, the U.S. needs to establish a legal immigration system to expand legal workforce pathways. 

“Enforcement cannot replace economic planning,” Chally writes. “If we want economic growth and sustained prosperity, we must also embrace legal pathways that let employers access the workforce they need.” 

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, Callie Jacobson, Broc Murphy and Marcela Aguirre. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected] mailto:[email protected].    

**TPS UNCERTAINTY** — Over 50,000 Hondurans and Nicaraguans face uncertainty after the sudden termination of their Temporary Protected Status (TPS). Lauren Kaori Gurley of The Washington Post [link removed] collects some of the stories behind the policy change that gives people 60 days to leave the country. “I’ve been doing everything the right way this whole time,” said Jhony Silva, a certified nursing assistant from Honduras who fears being separated from his U.S. citizen child. “I am very, very worried.” 

**HUMANITARIAN CRISIS** — The United Nations (UN) is warning of the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan as thousands are deported from Iran, reports Eltaf Najafizada of Bloomberg [link removed]. “The sheer volume of returns — many abrupt, many involuntary — should be setting off alarm bells across the global community,” said UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva.  

For more on what Afghan refugees are facing: 

* Afghan allies waiting to be resettled in the U.S. are speaking out about the pressures they feel to self-deport to Afghanistan after their long wait. (Beth Bailey, Reason [link removed]) 

* In Vermont, Afghan refugees discuss their concerns for the future. (Sophia Thomas, WCAX [link removed]) 

**ARRESTS AND LAWSUITS** — A U.S. citizen and Army veteran said that immigration officers detained him last week for three days without explanation after a raid on his workplace, reports Daniel Trotta of Reuters [link removed]. Separately, an immigrant father who has been in the United States for 30 years is taking legal action against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over arrests made without a warrant, reports Daniella Silva of NBC News [link removed]. 

**ENFORCEMENT** – New data shows that, in June, 47% of the daily ICE arrests were people without a criminal record, report Alex Fitzpatrick and Kavya Beheraj of Axios [link removed]. The number shows a jump from 21% reported in early May. Separately, in her op-ed for The Hill [link removed], Veronica Cardenas, a former prosecutor with the Department of Homeland Security, writes about the erosion of due process through courtroom arrests, dismissing cases, and the layoff of immigration judges. “For the sake of our nation, we must do better,” she writes. 

Thanks for reading,  

Clara 

**P.S.** Despite the current challenges, Mexican families in the U.S. are still reuniting with long-lost loved ones thanks to the efforts of key organizations, reports Anna Oakes of Documented [link removed].  

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