The Forum Daily | Thursday, July 24, 2025https://immigrationforum.org/

**THE FORUM DAILY**The Department of Education says it will investigate five universities that offer financial aid to students with legal protections under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, reports Vimal Patel of The New York Times [link removed]. 

The investigations are led by the department’s Office for Civil Rights, reports Carma Hassan of CNN [link removed]. The office says its goal is to determine whether scholarship programs that are open only to students born outside the United States violate civil rights laws against national origin discrimination, Hassan notes. 

The University of Nebraska in Omaha is one of the universities under investigation, reports Cindy Gonzales of the Nebraska Examiner [link removed].  

“[DACA recipients] are the embodiment of the American dream,” said State Senator Dunixi Guereca (D) referring to the investigation. “We should be encouraging and helping these kids that make our community stronger.”  

Meanwhile, in Texas, universities prepare to implement recent law changes that ended the eligibility of undocumented students to receive in-state tuition, reports Danya Pérez of the San Antonio Report [link removed].  

Citing the Forum [link removed], Pérez reports that the new Texas law will immediately impact 57,000 students in Texas. 

Nandra Nittle of The 19th News [link removed] highlights that Texas was the first state to grant in-state tuition to undocumented students, now with very limited guidance colleges are showing misclassification of students and generating fear and confusion, according to advocates.  

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

**DETENTION COST** — The Trump administration awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate the largest immigrant detention center in the country at Fort Bliss, an Army base in El Paso, report Sophie Alexander, Fola Akinnibi and Rachel Adams-Heard of Bloomberg [link removed]. The U.S. Army is allocating $232 million for the project, continuing the trend of detention spaces on military bases. The tent facility is expected to offer 5,000 beds. 

**CHILDREN AFFECTED** — Under the administration’s immigration policy, programs to protect migrant children are being cancelled, writes in a piece for Ms. Magazine [link removed], Mary Giovagnoli, former ombudsperson for unaccompanied children at the Department of Health and Human Services. Giovagnoli raises concerns about the current average time in custody for children that rose to over 200 days while the number of children reunited with parents or guardians dropped dramatically. Meanwhile, Nicol León and Gibran Caroline Boyce of the Arizona Republic [link removed] report that more unaccompanied minors are appearing in court without an attorney, as a result of recent policy changes. 

**DEFENSELESS** — As the Trump administration allocates $150 billion toward immigration and border enforcement, it is ending the contract with nonprofits that provide legal assistance to immigrants across the country, reports Rachel Uranga of the Los Angeles Times [link removed]. The contract’s termination will likely force low-income immigrants, especially children, to face the complex immigration system alone. Immigrant advocates point to the new “self-deport” posters and vacant migrant children help desks inside courts evidence the programs will be “functionally terminated.” 

**JUDICIAL CHALLENGES** — Fifteen Maryland federal judges have requested the dismissal of a Trump administration lawsuit that challenges a judge’s order blocking the deportation of migrants who file habeas corpus petitions, reports JT Moodee Lockman of CBS News [link removed]. The judges argue that the lawsuit, filed against the whole federal bench, is disrupting their operations and will create harmful tension between the two branches of government. Separately, Amna Nawaz of PBS [link removed] and Ximena Bustillo of NPR analyze the recent Department of Justice's decision to lay off immigration judges even as courts face massive case backlogs. 

Thanks for reading,  

Clara 

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