The Forum Daily | Tuesday, November 11, 2025https://immigrationforum.org/

**THE FORUM DAILY**

More than 30 local leaders gathered in Chicago to discuss the impact Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) raids have on the city’s economic and civic life, reports Amy Yee of the Chicago Sun Times [link removed].  

Jack Lavin, CEO of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce emphasized the raids are especially affecting the downtown area, which is "the heart of Chicago’s economic engine." 

Meanwhile, Lou Sandoval, former CEO of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, addressed the need for changes in the immigration system. "As a business leader and job creator, I can’t stay silent. As a son of immigrants, I won’t," said Sandoval. "We must fix our broken immigration system, yes. But first we must stop these actions that go against our values as Americans."  

Adrian Carrasquillo of The xxxxxx [link removed] also wrote on his recent experience visiting Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, where restaurants are seeing less business than ever before.  

And on a separate workforce note, the administration’s new H-1B visa rule, which replaces the lottery-based selection with a wage-based system, could undermine its goal of favoring the most economically valuable foreign workers, reports Andrew Kreighbaum of Bloomberg Law [link removed]. 

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 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] mailto:[email protected].   

**IMMIGRANT VETERANS** — Immigrants are a large and important part of the United States’ veteran community, writes George B. Graham in his op-ed for the Rockford Register Star [link removed]. Graham highlights a historic fact: during World War I and World War II, hundreds of thousands of immigrants served in the U.S. military. In the words of U.S. Army General Colin Powell in 1989: "The nation owes a great debt to its veterans." And —as Graham notes— that figure includes foreign-born individuals, whose numbers reached approximately 731,000 by 2022. 

Here is a look back on recent stories on veterans and immigration: 

* Veterans who lack citizenship fear being swept up in Trump’s deportations [link removed] (Stephen Groves, Associated Press) 

* Veterans recoil at Trump plan to end Afghans’ deportation protection [link removed] (Abigail Hauslohner and Emily Wax-Thibodeaux, The Washington Post) 

* For today’s immigration woes, a lesson from Reagan [link removed] (Anthony J. Principi, The Boston Globe) 

**GUARDIANSHIP** — As fears around immigration enforcement persist, immigrant parents are scrambling to find a backup plan for their children should the worst happen, report Ben Strauss and María Luisa Paúl of The Washington Post [link removed]. Parents are meeting with attorneys to prepare temporary guardianship papers in case they are deported. "It helps me breathe," said one mother, an asylum seeker from Venezuela. "And it took 10 minutes." 

**‘MEGA DETENTION CENTER’** — In a move that would expand the government’s ability to detain immigrants, the Trump administration is considering buying warehouses, report Julia Ainsley and David Ingram of NBC News [link removed]. While the large storage facilities have not yet been acquired, the plan is to use them to house immigrants prior to deportation., Ainsley and Ingram note. Separately, on the U.S.-Mexico border the Trump administration’s immigration policies result in a quiet southern border, report Bernd Debusmann Jr of the BBC [link removed].  

**FIREFIGHTER DEPORTED** — A firefighter who was detained on the job by ICE and later deported to Mexico is now speaking out about his experience, reports Sam Levin of The Guardian [link removed]. While responding to a wildfire in Washington state, José Bertin Cruz-Estrada was stopped by agents in four unmarked vehicles. "I felt betrayed. We were fighting fires deep in the forest. I never thought this could happen," said Cruz-Estrada. 

Thanks for reading,  

Clara 

**P.S.** Yia Vang, a chef in Minnesota, tells his own refugee story and explains how his food is now "a love letter to his parents," reports Jamie Yuccas of  CBS News [link removed].  

[link removed]

[link removed]    [link removed]    [link removed]    [link removed]

[link removed]

Unsubscribe from this email list [link removed] or opt out from all Forum emails [link removed]

Forum<br>10 G St NE<br>Suite 500<br>Washington, D.C. 20002<br>United States
www.forumtogether.org [link removed]