The Forum Daily | Tuesday, August 12, 2025https://immigrationforum.org/

**THE FORUM DAILY**The number of people held in immigration detention reached 60,000 on Monday, breaking modern records, report Chris Cameron and Hamed Aleaziz of The New York Times [link removed].  

Back in January of this year, the number of detained immigrants was at just 39,000. This sharp increase reflects the Trump administration’s efforts to increase interior enforcement, the Times notes.  

Concerns around the conditions in detention centers [link removed] countinues as the largest immigrant detention facility in the U.S. is set to open at Fort Bliss near El Paso, Texas, reports Sarah Bahari of The Dallas Morning News [link removed]. 

Separately, in Florida, some law enforcement officers continue detaining people under a state law that was put on hold by a federal judge, reports Kate Payne of the Associated Press [link removed].  

In July, two men were arrested using the law in Sarasota County. The federal judge is now requiring Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier to file bimonthly reports on whether any law enforcement actions were taken under the halted law.  

Some advocates warn that the law is being used to detain immigrants in Florida’s so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” facility. 

Welcome to Tuesday’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 and Nicci Mattey. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected] mailto:[email protected]. 

**TOURISM SLUMP** — Towns and cities across the U.S. are facing a decline in tourism as recent immigration policies are discouraging people from visiting, reports Luis Pablo Beauregard of El País [link removed]. In Las Vegas, international visitors dropped by 13% in June, reports Michael Sainato of The Guardian [link removed]. “If you tell the rest of the world you’re not welcome, they are going to listen,” said Ted Pappageorge, secretary treasurer of Culinary Workers Union Local 226. “Our members are telling us that they’re quite nervous.”  

**HIDDEN NEEDS **— As communities and families continue to recover from the deadly Texas floods, immigrant rights groups and volunteers are concerned that undocumented residents are not getting the aid they need, reports Edgar Sandoval of The New York Times [link removed]. The immigration crackdown has left many afraid to leave their homes unless absolutely necessary. “They think that asking for help may call attention to themselves,” said Sonya De La Garza-Walker of the League of United Latin American Citizens. 

**MIGRANT CHILDREN** — The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is tracking down the locations of unaccompanied minors who entered the country without documentation under the previous administration, reports Madeleine Rowley of The Free Press [link removed]. Meanwhile, Samantha Kamman of The Christian Post [link removed] reports that a lawsuit has been filed against ICE for violating its own policy after the agency detained and then deported two non-citizen parents along with their four children — three of whom are citizens and one of whom has stage 4 kidney cancer. 

**ASYLUM STRIPPED** — Dozens of people across the U.S. are receiving letters notifying them that their asylum cases have been closed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), reports Ximena Bustillo of NPR [link removed]. Most entered between 2019 and 2022 when there were not enough asylum officers to perform the “credible fear” interviews needed to begin the asylum process. “[Y]ou're virtually converting people that are following the normal traditional asylum rules and leaving them without a status and without protection and asking them to show their faces to ICE,” said Michelle Marty Rivera, an immigration attorney.  

Thanks for reading,  

Clara 

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