The Forum Daily | Monday, February 2, 2026https://www.forumtogether.org

We’re coming into this week inspired by the Grammys, and Katie Kindelan of ABC News [link removed] reports on one reason why. 

"I'm up here as a granddaughter of an immigrant," Olivia Dean said while accepting her award for best new artist. "I'm a product of bravery ...." 

Among Bad Bunny’s acceptance remarks, he said, "We are humans, and we are Americans." Later, he dedicated his album of the year award "to all the people that had to leave their homeland, their country, to follow their dreams." 

We’re also glad this morning for the release from detention of Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, as Megija Medne of KARE 11 [link removed] reports. But the average daily number of children held in detention has jumped significantly since the beginning of the Trump administration, report Anna Flagg and Shannon Heffernan of The Marshall Project [link removed]. 

According to an analysis with data from the Deportation Data Project [link removed], that number since the second Trump administration began is 170, up from an average around 25 in the last 16 months of the Biden administration. 

Meanwhile, families in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention are speaking out about conditions at the facilities, report Rick Jervis and Lauren Villagran of USA Today [link removed]. Speaking with immigrants held at the South Texas Family Residential Center, Jervis and Villagran recount stories of illnesses, cramped quarters and a lack of doctors.  

In Minneapolis, children’s lives and schooling have been disrupted, Maritsa Georgiou reports for Scripps News [link removed]. And immigrant parents worry about separation from their children, reports Romain Fonsegrives of AFP [link removed]. 

Fears became reality Thursday for two of Liam’s schoolmates, and school officials, report Elizabeth Shockman and Kerem Yücel of MPR News [link removed].    

Welcome to Monday’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, Malaika Onyia, Luisa Sinisterra 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]. 

**Health Care** 

* Many Haitians may soon not be able to work in the U.S. That will make caring for the elderly much harder [link removed] (Tami Luhby, CNN) 

* Potential Impact of the Federal Pause on Immigrant Visas From 75 Countries on the U.S. Health Care Workforce [link removed] (Drishti Pillai and Samantha Artiga, KFF) 

* Opinion: Fear of immigration raids undermines Minnesota’s health care system [link removed] (Jeffrey A. Singer and David J. Bier, Minnpost) 

**More on Labor and the Economy ** 

* New Forum resource: U.S. Workforce Challenges: How Immigration Enforcement Is Impacting the American Economy [link removed]  

* ICE raids are sparking labor shortages in South Texas, business leaders say [link removed] (James Osborne, Houston Chronicle) 

* Economic Forecast Slower Due To Lower Immigration, New Data Confirms [link removed] (Bill Conerly, Forbes) 

* Florida university system weighs pause on hiring H-1B visa holders (Garrett Shanley, Tampa Bay Times [link removed] Herald [link removed]) 

* Texas isn’t greater for halting H-1B visas. It’s smaller [link removed] (Houston Chronicle editorial board) 

**Tactics** 

* DHS ramps up surveillance in immigration raids, sweeping in citizens [link removed]*5e5szf*_up*MQ..*_gs*MQ..&gclid=Cj0KCQiAyvHLBhDlARIsAHxl6xrlKqLtddGRWQNH6JGQ-TvNM5b5Ba9B49DDUgs0UClqmIhm88hSsukaAua0EALw_wcB&gbraid=0AAAAAC5L6PBxIyuw5TGcsifOZap0ameq0 (Garanace Burke and Byron Tau, Associated Press) 

* The powerful tools in ICE’s arsenal to track suspects — and protesters [link removed] (Eva Dou, Artur Galocha and Kevin Schaul, The Washington Post) 

* Lawsuit challenges ICE ability to enter homes without warrants from U.S. judges [link removed] (Nate Raymond, Reuters) 

**Immigration Policies and Politics** 

* DHS Illegally Ended Venezuelan Migrant Status, 9th Cir. Says [link removed] (Andrew Kreighbaum, Bloomberg Law) 

* DHS is using Google and Adobe AI to make videos [link removed] (James O’Donnell, MIT Technology Review) 

* Few efforts made to discourage impersonators from taking advantage of ICE agents’ anonymity [link removed] (Las Vegas Sun) 

* Stephen Miller, Not Kristi Noem, May Be Driving U.S. Immigration Policy [link removed] (Stuart Anderson, Forbes) 

**Pushback** 

* A Diverse Boomtown in Trump Country Says ‘Thanks, But No Thanks’ to ICE [link removed] (Jesse Bogan, The Marshall Project) 

* ‘It’s All Just Going Down the Toilet’: Police Chiefs Fume at ICE Tactics [link removed] (Shaila Dewan, New York Times) 

* Catholic Church emerges as a xxxxxx of resistance [link removed] (Avery Lotz, Axios) 

* Opinion: The Polls Are Clear. Americans Don’t Want This. [link removed] (Republican pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson, The New York Times) 

Thanks for reading, 

Dan  

**P.S. **Worth catching up on: Zach Shapiro of the U.S. Coast Guard [link removed] writes about the culmination of Oz Syla’s experience with the branch’s naturalization program. 

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