The Forum Daily, formerly Noorani's Notes
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THE FORUM DAILY

 

Deadline extended! We've been getting such great feedback on our Forum
Daily survey that we're extending
it through Friday (April 29). Thank you!
The debate over border management and security will get only louder in
the days to come. But as we said Thursday
,
we see this moment as an opportunity to talk about solutions at the
border and elsewhere on immigration.

The news since Friday only highlights the urgency: In the Dallas Morning
News
,
Dianne Solis highlights concerns in border communities. For CBS News
,
Camilo Montoya-Galvez reports that DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas
anticipates "significant challenges" along the border, even as he
highlighted preparations like new processing facilities, additional
medical staff and other personnel, and "expanded migrant transportation
capabilities." And in Bloomberg
,
Greg Stohr and Jordan Fabian dive into the politics of it all.

But to take advantage of this opportunity, Republican lawmakers will
have to break with their party's political strategy of drawing any and
all attention to the border. In The Washington Post

opinion section, James Downie notes that Kevin McCarthy is traveling to
the border today in "a transparent attempt to distract from newly
released tapes recorded just after the Jan. 6 insurrection, in which
McCarthy is heard telling other Republicans that he would advise
then-President Donald Trump to resign." This is all part of a larger
goal, "[b]ecause while immigration might not sway the electorate as a
whole, it fires up the GOP base that McCarthy wants to keep on his
side."

Elsewhere in the department of political distractions, Texas Gov. Greg
Abbott's truck inspections cost the state's taxpayers $4.2 billion
and resulted in exactly zero migrant detentions or drug seizures, Ariana
Garcia reports in the Houston Chronicle
.

Finally, on Christianity Today's

Better Samaritan podcast, I talked about border security and the
responsibility we have to welcome those fleeing persecution and war.

Welcome to Monday's edition of The Forum Daily. If you have a
story to share from your own community, please send it to me at
[email protected] .
And if you know others who'd like to receive this newsletter, please
spread the word. They can subscribe here
.

**STATE OF PLAY** - Jordain Carney of The Hill

examines the challenges that are complicating senators' efforts to
start a bipartisan conversation on immigration and border issues. Among
the possible areas of agreement: bills that would prevent the
deportation of military veterans and solutions for Dreamers and
agricultural workers. "[A]dvocates float that a deal, at minimum, could
pair a DACA fix, agricultural workers and temporary protected status
(TPS) holders with some border security," Carney notes. (Sounds
familiar. ) "But there are plenty of sticking
points-namely election year jockeying and increasingly entrenched
divisions on immigration."

**UKRAINIAN REFUGEES** - With increasing numbers of Ukrainian refugees
come increasing questions about Europe's capacity to support them, per
Rebecca Beitsch of The Hill
.
"Having just crossed the grim milestone of 5 million refugees from
Ukraine it's concerning that there's no end in sight," said Krish
O'Mara Vignarajah, president of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee
Service. Said Rachel Levitan, vice president for international policy
and relations with HIAS: "There may be a need for Europe to institute
some system that would facilitate relocation of these very densely
populated areas inside Poland if they ask for that support. But we're
not there yet."

**TRUST** - Eli Hoff of the Columbia Missourian

has the gripping story of an Afghan family's escape thanks to their
trust in two endlessly persistent strangers in Jefferson City, Missouri,
including a former Army counterinsurgency specialist. Just give it a
read.

On the local welcome front:

* In partnership with Springfield Church of Christ, Northern Virginia
Resettling Afghan Families Together (NoVa RAFT) was able to help set up
"nearly 200 Afghan refugee homes with furniture, beds, kitchenware,
linens and other household items," Bobby Ross Jr. writes in his personal
take for The Christian Chronicle
.

* Eastern Michigan University's "welcome and embrace" of 12 resettled
Afghan families "will foster their growth and provide them a chance to
make a new life," reads a legislative tribute signed by the state's
governor and lieutenant governor. (Samuel Dodge, MLive.com
)

* A $50,000 grant will help the International Institute of New England
support more than 500 evacuees in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, as
well as future Ukrainian refugees. (Trea Lavery, Lowell Sun
)

**SERVING REFUGEES** - Last week, the Ethics & Religious Liberty
Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention hosted a webinar on the
faith response to understanding and serving refugees better, reports
Michael Smith of The Baptist Paper
.
"What can give us an accurate perception of those coming to the U.S. is
to see past the headlines and start serving, start getting close to
people who are starting new lives ... and showing up in really
uncomfortable places because that is what God calls us to do," said
Women of Welcome's Bri Stensrud. In doing the hard work to serve
refugees, we must never forget to ask, "Who is my neighbor?" said
Matthew Soerens of World Relief.

NEEDS - On what seems like a daily basis, The Forum Daily notes a new
story about how we need to increase immigration in order to address
demographic declines in the United States. In today's installment,
Howard Gleckman highlights in Forbes

that 400,000 direct care workers left their jobs during the pandemic,
and almost none are returning. Realizing that adult children are
reducing their own working hours or paying more to care for their
parents, Gleckman concludes that "[w]ithout an influx of foreign-born
workers, there simply will not be enough people to care for our parents.
And we all will suffer."

Thanks for reading, Ali

 

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