As the federal government enters a shutdown, agencies that focus on immigration and trade will be safeguarded, report Myah Ward, Megan Messerly and Sophia Cai of Politico.
Most U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and most of Citizenship and Immigration Services will stay on the job, with the funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act giving those agencies more time before they run out of money, reports David Ulloa Jr of the Arizona Republic.
In New York City, at 26 Federal Plaza, while court cases and meetings are cancelled for immigrants, the detention of some those showing up continues, reports Wesley Parnell of The New York Times.
Separately, Camilo Montoya-Galvez and Laura Doan of CBS News address some of the misinformation surrounding one of the central points of contention among lawmakers that contributed to the government shutdown, the claim that some legislators are pushing to extend health benefits to undocumented immigrants.
Individuals with no legal status remain ineligible for government benefits, as explained in this Forum’s resource.
Evan MacDonald of The Houston Chronicle consults experts to clarify the limited health benefits available to immigrants and provides an in-depth explanation of how enhanced premium tax credits work, including who actually benefits from them.
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 Masooma Amin, Jillian Clark, Dan Gordon, and Nicci Mattey. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected].
WEALTH LOST — Leaders within the semiconductor industry warn that restricting visa rules puts their talent pool at risk, reports Maggie Eastland of Bloomberg. Proposed changes to F-1 student visas are receiving backlash from more than two dozen semiconductor executives who say that the visa is an important talent pipeline for the tech industry. Meanwhile, professors of business and technology, Hemant Bhargava and D. Daniel Sokol analyze in a piece for the Los Angeles Times that the $100,000 fee for H-1B visas will cost the United States in labor and monetary wealth.
U.S. CITIZEN — Leonardo Garcia Venegas, a U.S. citizen is filing a lawsuit against the federal government after being arrested and detained twice by immigration authorities, reports Laura Romero of ABC News. Garcia Venegas is a construction worker living in Baldwin, Alabama. "DHS authorizes these armed raids based on the general assumption that certain groups of people in the industry, including Latinos, are likely illegal immigrants," said Garcia Venegas’ attorney.
REFUGEES AT RISK — One man’s struggle to reunite with his family after years of separation reflects current struggles facing those within the U.S. refugee system, reports Nicholas Dale Leal of El País. "I think this country should know that refugees are not bad people. We help the United States. They check [our backgrounds], we pay the fees... We’ve been waiting for years," said Rostam, who came to the U.S. fleeing religious persecution.
TEST CASE — The deployment of federal officers into the streets of Washington D.C. made the city into one of the first test cases for immigration authorities to expand enforcement efforts in urban areas, report Hamed Aleaziz, Brent McDonald and Amogh Vaz of The New York Times. This crackdown included traffic violations, park policies and among other arguments being used for immigration enforcement, the Times notes.
P.S. Immigration enforcement at sports venues is placing both fans and teams in a difficult position as reported by Bruce Schoenfeld of The New York Times Magazine.
