The Forum Daily | Tuesday, August 19, 2025https://immigrationforum.org/

**THE FORUM DAILY**A judge dismissed the main claim in a lawsuit on detainees’ court access held at the immigration detention center in Florida’s Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz.” The judge said the issue was rendered moot when their immigration court venue was designated as Krome North Processing Center, reports Churchill Ndonwie of the Miami Herald [link removed]. 

The case was also moved to a different district, claiming the arguments should be heard by the court that oversees Collier County, where the facility is located, according to the Herald. 

The lawsuit also argues that the plaintiffs have been denied confidential and timely access to legal counsel, in violation of their First Amendment rights. That left one issue that hasn’t been fully addressed, Ndonwie notes. 

This is one of two main lawsuits related to the Everglades center, reports Abel Fernández of El País [link removed]. 

A ruling on the legality of the facility’s structure is expected on Thursday from another lawsuit filed by environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe of Florida, Fernández notes. 

Additionally, on Sunday the federal government opened the largest immigration detention center to date in Texas, report Jorge Ventura and Rob Taub of News Nation [link removed]. The facility has 1,000 beds and plans to add an additional 4,000 by 2027. 

As Ely Brown of ABC News [link removed] reports, the center did not open without protest.  

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 and Christian Penichet- Paul. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected] mailto:[email protected]. 

**REFUGEES** — As the U.S. resettlement program remains paused amid an ongoing litigation, the administration is weighing setting a new annual limit of refugee admission that would be set around at 40,000 with a large majority of spots reserved for white South Africans, reports Ted Hesson of Reuters [link removed]. The proposed cap represents a steep decline from the cap of over 100,000 refugee admissions set in recent fiscal years, Hesson notes. 

**CHALLENGES FOR EMPLOYERS** — In Ohio, many Haitians are facing the difficult decision on whether to stay in the United States without legal status or return to their country where the situation could prove dangerous, reports Miriam Jordan of The New York Times [link removed]. As many leave, employers are facing the challenge of filling their positions. Meanwhile in South Texas, mayors and business leaders from the region met to discuss the solutions needed to handle the worker shortage created by recent immigration enforcement, reports Jorge Vela of Border Report [link removed]. 

**INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS** — With recent increase in immigration enforcement and policy changes, international students are taking a step back from American schools, report Lydia DePillis and Jin Yu Young of The New York Times [link removed]. At the same time, countries in Asia have invested in their own university systems for years, driving more students to those schools to complete their education. This decline can already be seen in Boston as less international students sign leases within neighborhoods usually populated by university students, reports Carrie Jung of WBUR [link removed].  

**VALUES** — The Catholic bishops of Kansas wrote a joint letter [link removed] reminding the faithful that "Unnecessary raids, mass detentions, and family separations betray the values of our nation and the Gospel,” reports OSV News [link removed]. “We urge the faithful to encounter immigrants as neighbors,” the bishops wrote. “And build welcoming parishes where politics never poisons compassion.” Elsewhere, a non-profit in Pittsburg continues to help immigrants find their place in a new community, reports Adam Babetski of the Pittsburg Post Gazette [link removed].  

Thanks for reading,  

Clara 

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