In the past eight months, new federal policies have made legal immigration increasingly difficult, report Priscilla Alvarez and Kaanita Iyer of CNN.
Policies such as increased visa fees and the vetting of social media accounts for political views are making it difficult for international students and workers to come to and stay in the United States. Those already here are finding it harder to keep their legal status.
A GE plant in Louisville, Kentucky, offers a look at real-life consequences of policy changes. Changes in immigration status forced the layoff of 150 workers, report Mark Strassmann and Luisa Garcia of CBS News.
In Alabama, construction industry leaders are warning that increased immigration enforcement actions are deepening an already difficult labor shortage, reports Mike Cason of AL.com. “[W]e want to find solutions that uphold the law, but allow us to find a path for immigrant workers on our job sites,” said Jay Reed, president of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Alabama.
Eva Roytburg of Fortune also follows Alabama builders’ concerns.
Last but not least, the president’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee could result in American companies struggling to hire qualified workers and offshoring jobs, reports Emily Peck of Axios.
Michelle Hackman, Tarini Parti and Amrith Ramkumar of The Wall Street Journal have more on the confusion around the H-1B overhaul. And in a recent Journal op-ed, Samuel Gregg, president of the American Institute for Economic Research, argues that the administration's approach is missing “appreciation of how H-1B visas benefit the U.S. economy, particularly the American-born workforce.”
Welcome to Thursday’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 Marcela Aguirre, Masooma Amin, Jillian Clark and Clara Villatoro. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected].
DALLAS ICE FACILITY — One immigrant detainee was killed and two were wounded in yesterday’s shooting at an Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) facility in Dallas, report Jamie Landers, Aarón Torres and Timia Cobb of The Dallas Morning News. The detainees were inside an ICE transport van when the shooting took place, according to ICE. The identity of the shooter has not been released.
DNA — Between 2020 and 2024, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) collected DNA samples from about 2,000 U.S. citizens at the border checkpoints, hundreds of whom had not been arrested or charged, reports Francesca Regalado of The New York Times. According to a report by Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology, DNA information was submitted to an FBI database of convicted criminals, missing people, and evidence from crime scenes.
DETENTION DEATHS — Georgia’s two senators are requesting more information on the more than a dozen deaths in immigration detention centers in recent months, reports Ximena Bustillo of NPR. Since January, 15 people have died in immigration detention. "Whatever our views on border enforcement, immigration enforcement, immigration policy, I think the overwhelming majority of the American people does not want detainees abused while they're in U.S. custody,"said Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Georgia).
LOCAL SLICE — Sorry I didn’t stop in during a visit earlier this year: At Dayton Village Pizza, the menu and the atmosphere represent one family’s journey to the American dream, reports Sydney Dawes as part of Dayton Daily News’ “Making Dayton Home” series. “People come here with their families,” said Gulnaz Makhmudova, who helps her father run the restaurant. “Some want something traditional. Others want to try something new. And we welcome all of them.”
