The Forum Daily | Friday, May 1, 2026https://www.forumtogether.org

First off today, a huge thank-you to Jillian Clark, Forum Daily drafter extraordinaire.  

For close to three years, Jillian has embraced the art of logging in early, quickly spotting the must-read immigration stories among many, and summarizing them. Without a doubt, her talent has made the Daily better. 

Jillian, as you move on to new opportunities, we wish you all the best. 

To the news: The longest shutdown of a federal government department in the nation's history is over, as Stefan Becket of CBS News [link removed] reports. 

Yesterday the House unanimously passed the Senate’s bill to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the president later signed it.  

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol were nearly untouched during the shutdown, having received tens of billions of dollars from last year’s "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," Becket notes. 

As the shutdown concludes, we’d remind lawmakers that a vast majority of American voters want balanced immigration solutions [link removed] including border security, enforcement that sets priorities [link removed], updates to asylum, and beneficial legal-immigration pathways. 

One such pathway would be a solution for Dreamers [link removed]. 

Having deported Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient José Contreras Diaz, ICE flew him back — then immediately detained him, reports Uriel J. García of The Texas Tribune [link removed]. 

Contreras, 30, had expected to reunite in Texas with his wife and infant son. 

The Washington Post [link removed] editorial board digs into the increased uncertainty for DACA recipients after last week’s new precedent from the Board of Immigration Appeals, which makes it easier for recipients to be deported. 

DACA still has broad popular support, and it previously had bipartisan backing "because lawmakers from both parties understood that these young people are assets to the economy," the board notes. 

Welcome to Friday’s edition of The Forum Daily. I'm Dan Gordon, and the great Forum Daily team also includes Jillian Clark, Nicci Mattey, Dianna Roldan, 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]. 

**IMMIGRATION AND JOBS **— Previously successful businesses in Laredo, Texas, are suffering amid the immigration crackdown, Berenice Garcia reports in The Texas Tribune [link removed]. That could hurt the city’s ability to fund schools and infrastructure as tax revenues drop: "A lot of those publicly funded projects are not going to be as easy to fund when taxes decline," said Kevin Thomas of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University. 

**PRESSURE ON CUBAN AMERICANS **— Per a new Cato Institute [link removed] study, Cubans in the U.S. are facing unprecedented immigration enforcement pressures, reports Tim Padgett of WLRN [link removed]. Since the beginning of the second Trump administration, arrests of Cuban migrants have increased 463% while green card approvals have nearly stopped. The study is among the evidence the Miami Herald [link removed] editorial board cites in writing that immigration restrictions are hurting legal immigrants — and native-born Americans. "This system is neither sustainable nor good for the nation," the board writes.   

**HAITIANS QUESTION FUTURE** — Haitians who’ve helped counter Springfield, Ohio’s, labor shortage are unsure of their future in the United States, reports Miriam Jordan of The New York Times [link removed]. Without these workers, "we would have manufacturers and businesses that don’t have employees," said Clark County Commissioner Charlie Patterson. Meanwhile, Florida pastors are among those who’ve called for Haitian TPS to be extended, reports Lauren Costantino of the Miami Herald [link removed]. Jacqueline Charles, also of the Herald [link removed], looks at history related to the case. 

**SURVEILLANCE **— The United States is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on surveillance to identify and detain unlawful immigrants, report Shane Shifflett and Hannah Critchfield of The Wall Street Journal [link removed], with illustrations by Alexandra Citrin-Safadi. The upgraded systems give thousands of federal agents access to the private information and data of more than 300 million people, including U.S. citizens, Shifflett and Critchfield report. 

Thanks for reading,  

Dan 

**P.S. **We’ll be rooting for the Afghan women’s refugee soccer team. It’s now eligible to play in international competitions, reports Anne M. Peterson of the Associated Press [link removed]. 

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