FARMWORKERS — The U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 underscores the need to improve working conditions for farmworkers, reports Ximena Bustillo of POLITICO. The bill would require the Departments of Homeland Security and Labor to create a commission to improve the employment verification process and increase protections for workers. Bustillo notes that a recent report from The Economic Policy Institute found that over 70% of federal labor standards investigations of farms found violations, including wage theft and inadequate housing and transportation. Said Sen. Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey), who just introduced the legislation in the Senate: "Many [Republicans] have interest in parts of the legislation. Many of them are representatives of Ag states and so they care very much about the elements on farm workers." Here's hoping. Farmworkers are essential workers, and bipartisan solutions for them should be important for both Democrats and Republicans. 

GARLAND — Attorney General nominee Merrick Garland addressed immigration issues during the first day of his confirmation hearing, The New York Times reports. Pledging to cooperate with investigations of the Trump administration’s "zero-tolerance" family separation policy, Garland stated: "I think the policy was shameful. I can't imagine anything worse than separating parents from their children. And we will provide all of the cooperation that we possibly can." Amid a spike in hate crimes against Asian Americans, Garland also pledged to support efforts to combat discrimination and hate incidents, reports The Washington Post’s David Nakamura: "The role of the [Justice Department’s] Civil Rights Division is to prosecute those cases vigorously, and I can ensure you that it will if I am confirmed." 

REOPENED — The Biden administration has reopened a Trump-era migrant facility for children in Carrizo Springs, Texas, reports Silvia Foster-Frau at The Washington Post. The facility will hold a maximum of 700 children ages 13 to 17 to help with pandemic-related capacity challenges, according to government officials. Immigration lawyers and advocates "question why the Biden administration would choose to reopen a Trump-era facility that was the source of protests and controversy," but officials say their options are limited. "If we could find another way, that’d be great," said Mark Weber, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services. "On the flip side, these kids just come in and they’re turned loose on the street, they end up being homeless kids. … Every kid that comes into this program is a symptom of a broken immigration system." 

POPULATION SQUEEZE — Years ago, Ron Brownstein described the growing dependence of older white Americans on younger non-white Americans to sustain the nation’s economy and retirement system as a collision between "the brown and the gray." In a CNN analysis drawing on a range of perspectives, including the Forum’s recent  Room to Grow paper, Brownstein lays out how the demographic "blind spot" in the immigration debate could leave the nation yearning for more people: "There's mounting demographic evidence the U.S. will pay a heavy economic price in the next few decades if it can't break the immigration stalemate to alleviate its population squeeze." 

PREYED UPON— A lawsuit from The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) alleges that the bail bond firm Libre by Nexus "duped U.S. immigrants into wearing electronic tracking bracelets and paying thousands of dollars in fees in hopes of getting them removed," reports Stephen Gandel of CBS News. According to the suit, Libre has been "preying on" detained immigrants by offering to put up the bond money needed for their release awaiting trial, requiring them to wear tracking bracelets and pay a $420 monthly fee in return. The CFPB also alleges that immigrants believed the money they were paying Libre went towards their original bond, when in fact none of it did. The lawsuit is backed by the attorneys general of Massachusetts, New York and Virginia. 

A BIBLICAL ISSUE — In an op-ed for Florida Today, The Rev. Joel Tooley makes the case for immigration as not just a political, security or economical issue but a biblical one. "Throughout the Bible, there are three vulnerable groups of people repeatedly mentioned in the same passages — orphans, widows and immigrants — whom God commands his people to love, to treat justly and to protect from exploitation and mistreatment," Tooley writes. "And one way that we can demonstrate love is by urging our elected officials to finally pass immigration reforms that would allow vulnerable immigrants to step out of the shadows and earn the chance to be citizens of this country that they love."