The Forum Daily | Friday,??? January 9,??? 2026 ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

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Weeks before a Minneapolis woman was shot and killed by federal officers, a memo went out to Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) officers on the ground
stating that they should be "prepared to take appropriate and decisive action should you be faced with an imminent threat," reports Hamed Aleaziz of The New York Times [link removed].??

The Dec. 12 memo highlights a heightened sense of alarm within ICE ahead of the shooting, Aleaziz reports.????

Yesterday, two people were shot and wounded by U.S. Border Patrol agents in Portland, Oregon, report Conrad Wilson, Alex Zielinski and Dirk VanderHart of Oregon Public Broadcasting [link removed]. The Department of Homeland Security alleges the two were gang members, they report.????

Protests and vigils across the city followed, including one outside an ICE facility in which six people were arrested.??

Jacey Fortin of The New
York Times [link removed] summarizes the enforcement crackdown in these cities and others.????

Shannon Heffernan of The Marshall Project [link removed] examines ICE agents' use of deadly force this past year. Renee Nicole Good's case marks the third fatal shooting by an immigration officer since September. Agents have wounded or threatened many more with guns.??

Elsewhere, DHS plans to expand border security efforts on the Rio Grande by placing floating buoys along more than 500 miles of the river, reports Berenice Garcia of The Texas Tribune [link removed].??

Welcome to Friday'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 Jillian Clark, Nicci Mattey and Clara Villatoro. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send???it???to me at [email protected].??

**SLOWED GROWTH** - The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is lowering its population-growth prediction because of low fertility rates and the administration's immigration policies, report Fatima Hussein and Mike Schneider of the Associated Press [link removed]. Without immigration, the trend is more severe, per the CBO: The population would begin to shrink in 2030. Even if policies change when the current administration leaves office, "it's still a demographic shock," said William Frey, a Brookings Institution demographer. Read our take on demographic challenges
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**NOT CRIMINALS** - The increased number of immigrants in detention since September has been fueled by noncriminals, immigration enforcement expert Austin Kocher reports on Substack [link removed]. Among the additional 11,296 detainees, "[n]oncriminal detainees represent 72 percent of this growth, 20 percent is attributed to people with, at most, pending criminal charges, and just 8 percent of the growth in ICE detention this fiscal year can be attributed to immigrants with criminal convictions," he writes. Americans want enforcement to prioritize public-safety and national-security threats, as our latest polling reaffirms
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**VENEZUELANS** - The U.S. has been deporting Venezuelans to Mexico since December, report Syra Ortiz Blanes and Ver??nica Egui Brito of the Miami Herald [link removed]. The deportations seem to be a part of the administration's expansion of deportations to third countries, Blanes and Brito note. Meanwhile, a new analysis [link removed] from the National Foundation for American Policy shows that the American economy would prosper more from allowing previously protected Venezuelan immigrants to stay in the country than by selling Venezuelan oil, foundation Executive Director Stuart
Anderson writes in Forbes [link removed].??

**COMPASSION** - Emily Brown of Relevant Magazine [link removed] turns to Women of Welcome Director Bri Stensrud as she examines the Christian reaction to immigration enforcement and how the Church must lead moving forward. Stensrud and Brown discuss the sometimes difficult feat of navigating conversations about immigrants and refugees with fellow Christians. "Compassion is never political," Stensrud said. "Compassion is given to us so that we can be prophetic in a world that is lost and in pain."??

Thanks for reading,????

Dan??

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