The Forum Daily | Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025https://immigrationforum.org/

**THE FORUM DAILY**

More than 100 federal agents are expected to arrive in California's Bay Area today ahead of an expected immigration crackdown on the area, report Matthias Gafni, Michael Barba and St. John Barned-Smith of The San Francisco Chronicle [link removed].

The president continually has threatened to send federal agents and National Guard members to the area despite local leaders’ arguments that such actions are unwarranted.

Federal tactics "are designed to incite backlash, chaos and violence, which are then used as an excuse to deploy military personnel," said Mayor Daniel Lurie. "They are intentionally creating a dangerous situation in the name of public safety."

The mayor also has directed law enforcement officers "to support immigrant communities, protect peaceful protesters and refrain from assisting with federal civil immigration enforcement" in line with city policy, reports Sydney Johnson of KQED [link removed].

The use of the National Guard in federal deployments to cities is the subject of ongoing court challenges, Mikhail Zinshteyn of CalMatters [link removed] reports.

A Public Religion Research Institute poll released yesterday indicates that most Americans believe enforcement can go too far, reports Russell Contreras of Axios [link removed].

"Nearly two-thirds oppose arresting and detaining unauthorized immigrants who have resided in the U.S. with no criminal record," he reports, and "[n]early six in 10 agree that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers ‘should not be allowed to conceal their identity with masks or use unmarked vehicles when arresting people.’"

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] mailto:[email protected].

**UNFINISHED VETTING** — In its hurry to hire new agents, ICE has sent some recruits to training before their vetting is complete, report Julia Ainsley and Didi Martinez of NBC News [link removed]. ICE belatedly discovered that "some of the recruits failed drug testing, have disqualifying criminal backgrounds or don’t meet the physical or academic requirements to serve," they report. More than 200 recruits have been dismissed after starting training for not meeting hiring requirements, according to internal ICE data.

**GROWTH STIFLED** — In Texas, the federal immigration crackdown is negatively affecting job growth, reports Brian Kirkpatrick of Texas Public Radio [link removed]. Recent Texas Business Outlook Surveys [link removed] from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas indicate that immigration policy will harm one in five Texas businesses this year. "Employers are very worried about how many foreign-born workers are staying home and even just leaving," said Madeline Zavodny, an economics professor at the University of North Florida who co-authored the Dallas Fed’s report [link removed] on the surveys.

**COURTROOM TENSION** — Immigration courts in the United States have become a battleground, reports E. Tammy Kim of The New Yorker [link removed]. Amid a nationwide backlog of about 4 million cases, the administration continues to fire immigration judges. The changes and tension are causing confusion, including among attorneys: "I’ve been practicing immigration for seventeen years, and I’ve had to say so many times, in the past two or three months, ‘I haven’t got a clue,’" said Marty Rosenbluth, an attorney who represents detained immigrants in Georgia.

**VISA FEES** — Ben Zweig, the founder of Revelio Labs, writes in Time [link removed] that the new H-1B visa fees will restrict American businesses and push jobs overseas. "My support of H-1B visa employees is not only because of their contributions to my company — though they are a great asset — but because the program itself helps strengthen the American economy and create more jobs for everyone in this country," Zweig writes.

Thanks for reading,  

Dan 

**P.S.** Nearly three dozen chefs from Asian restaurants in Chicago will join forces for a Nov. 3 event to support immigrant-rights organizations, Laura Ratliff writes in Time Out Chicago [link removed].

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