JOBS — Much is being written these days about employers unable to find workers as the nation crawls out of the pandemic. Reporting for Axios, Dan Primack and Hope King write that "America's labor shortage crisis has been exacerbated by immigration restrictions that have reduced the number of both skilled and unskilled workers." In fact, immigrant and non-immigrant visas issued during fiscal year 2020 were down 54% — nearly five million — from 2019. Our take: We have Room to Grow, and should increase annual net immigration by 37% to prevent demographic deficit and socioeconomic decline.  

DEPORTED VETERANS — Mexican-born José Velasco came to the U.S. as a child and was a green card holder when he was drafted during the Vietnam War era. But three years ago, he was deported to Tijuana after being charged with assault with a deadly weapon, reports Steve Walsh of North Carolina Public Radio. Velasco "is one of hundreds — or perhaps thousands — of former U.S. service members who are trying to get back to the country where they served and lived most of their lives." Though military service can be a fast track to citizenship, Walsh notes that some veterans don’t finish the process, lose track of it while moving from base to base, or even pass away before getting the opportunity to have their case heard. "Create a pathway so that they can return home," said Jennie Pasquarella with the ACLU of Southern California. "That's where I think the administration could adopt a policy or a process that would allow for a revisiting of those cases, reopening their immigration cases." 

TEXAS — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is choosing "eviction over empathy" on the southern border, writes Marv Knox, coordinator of Fellowship Southwest, in an op-ed for the San Antonio Express-News. If Gov. Abbott decides to officially evict children who are vulnerable and separated from their families, he will essentially be pulling licenses from both domestic foster care programs and "foster care providers like Catholic Charities — that allow them to offer transitional foster care for unaccompanied migrant children," Knox writes. "I’m ashamed of federal and state officials — especially those who profess to be Christians — who seem to think they can hang children’s bodies on the border wall as a warning to desperate families facing rape, persecution, famine and murder." In other Texas news, Gov. Abbott has "ordered the state Department of Criminal Justice to move inmates from a south Texas state prison to make room for immigrants who have crossed the border unlawfully," which was first announced in March, Florian Martin and Paul Debenedetto report for Houston Public Media.