The Forum Daily | Wednesday, November 12, 2025https://immigrationforum.org/

THE FORUM DAILY

In an interview with Fox News [link removed] that aired last night, President Trump defended H-1B visas, saying that sometimes foreign-born workers are necessary for businesses to fill skills gaps, reports Zoë Richards of NBC News [link removed]. 

The president’s comments acknowledge that despite securing investments from abroad for major industries, for now some foreign talent is necessary where not enough American-born trained workers are available. 

The president’s most recent moves on H-1B visas include adding a $100,000 fee for new applicants. The Boston Globe’s [link removed] editorial board shares its concerns over how the new fee will "affect medicine — and in particular, the potential for lost research and for worsening shortages of doctors" in primary care and psychiatry, as well as in rural and/or poorer areas. 

Separately, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ decision to stop allowing automatic renewals for immigrant work permits will also affect certain unaccompanied children, reports Alisa Reznick of KJZZ [link removed]. 

"Things that you and I might use our driver’s license for, these kids are relying on their work permit, because it is the only government issued ID that they might have from the U.S. government," said Jennifer Podkul of Kids in Need of Defense. 

Welcome to Wednesday’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]. 

**VETERANS AT RISK** — When Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests immigrant veterans, "it commits an act of profound infidelity that strikes at the heart of the military covenant and degrades the very meaning of service and citizenship," writes Lynn Schmidt in her column for The Fulcrum [link removed]. Looking at the detention of George Retes, an Army veteran, Schmidt outlines the real anxieties immigrant veterans face in the wake of today’s immigration onslaught.  

For more on immigration policy impacts: 

* Julio Rojas describes the violent experience of being deported from Kansas City to El Salvador. (Eric Adler, The Kansas City Star [link removed]) 

* A new study [link removed] shows that increased immigration enforcement is affecting the test scores of U.S.-born as well as immigrant students. (Erica Meltzer, Chalkbeat [link removed]) 

* In Chicago, some Catholic immigrants avoid attending Mass for fear of immigration enforcement. (Adora Namigadde, National Catholic Reporter [link removed]) 

**DETENTION, DEPORTATION REALITIES** — For decades, Iranians fleeing persecution came to the United States to find safety. Now the U.S. is sending them back to Iran, which is known for human rights violations, report Farnaz Fassihi and Hamed Aleaziz of The New York Times [link removed]. In the piece, Mehrdad Dalir, who was sent to Iran in late September on the first deportation flight, describes the experience. Separately in The New York Times [link removed], Carol Rosenberg takes a look at the early days of immigration detention at Guantánamo Bay. 

**BISHOPS’ MESSAGE** — At their annual fall plenary assembly, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops re-established its support for immigrants in the U.S., reports Tiffany Stanley of the Associated Press [link removed]. In a message to Pope Leo XIV, the conference wrote that it "will continue to stand with migrants and defend everyone’s right to worship free from intimidation," reports OSV News [link removed]. 

**ECONOMIC STRATEGY** — Despite the recent immigration crackdown, immigrant workers continue to power the U.S. economy, reports Diccon Hyatt for Investopedia [link removed]. In his op-ed for the Orlando Sentinel [link removed], Forum mobilizer Joel Tooley writes, "Americans deserve a revitalized immigration strategy and as such, Americans deserve clarity on two main things: Who is being deported and what is the administration’s plan to empower a strategy to maintain social and economic stability." 

Thanks for reading,  

Dan 

** **

[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.immigrationforum.org [link removed]