"You cannot have one state or a few municipalities deal with the brunt of this immigration," he said. "We have to find a plan — a national plan." 

Securing the border is an effective and humane way is possible. Our latest policy paper helps define what makes the border secure, including recommendations to build a healthier dialogue around border policy and security. 

And in The Hill, Theresa Cardinal Brown, managing director of immigration and cross-border policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, offers a border framework to consider — beyond deterrence.  

Among Brown’s recommendations are increasing Mexico’s capacity to process and integrate more asylum seekers and refugee claims, expanding and streamlining work visa processes, increasing resources and staffing to mitigate backlogs, and processing asylum claims more rapidly while ensuring due process.  

"[P]ushing the same deterrence policies isn’t working. We need to try something new, and soon," Brown concludes.  

Welcome to Thursday’s edition of The Forum Daily.  I’m Dan Gordon, the Forum’s strategic communications VP. We’re pausing the Daily on Fridays this month, so we’ll be back Monday. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected]. 

VISA BACKLOGS — The backlogged immigration system is putting workers and employers in a difficult situation, reports Andrew Kreighbaum of Bloomberg Law. Workers who need to renew expired visas must do so at a consular office outside the U.S., but delays at short-staffed offices could mean a months-long wait abroad. In turn, employers may be stuck without workers for extended periods. The Trump administration’s two-year pause on processing guestworker visas during the pandemic has exacerbated these challenges. Workers "just don’t trust that even if they can get an appointment, it will be honored," Leon Fresco, an attorney at Holland & Knight, said. One potential solution: allowing workers to renew their visa stamps here, rather than abroad. 

SOLVING SHORTAGES — The Chicago Welcome Back Center, which launched Tuesday, will help immigrant workers in health care obtain professional licenses in the U.S., which can address sector’s shortages, reports Andrea Flores of WTTW. "This center will help our international community to continue their profession of choice and follow their dreams," said Janine Janosky, president of Richard J. Daley College, where the center is located. Added Dr. José Ramón Fernández-Peña, executive director of the Welcome Back Initiative, "In addition to the lack of diversity, there are serious shortages in all areas of the health workforce, from nurses to mental health professionals, physicians, public health professionals, speech pathologists, etc." 

FAITH LENS — I’m not Catholic, but I pray that more of us might listen to the words of New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan regarding welcoming migrants bused from Texas. Per Catholic News Service: "[Jesus is] the one who said to us, ‘When I was a stranger ... an immigrant, you welcomed me.’ ... Our perspective is to help them ... (with) a sense of honor that we are able to help these people in whom we see the face of God." More than 6,000 migrants have been brought to the city. Catholic Charities of the New York Archdiocese has supported 1,500 of them, offering food, clothing, and resources for shelter and assistance with immigration attorneys. 

PATHWAYS — Resettled Afghans and Ukrainians lack a certain pathway to legal residence in the U.S. after fleeing their home countries, Courtney Rozen reports in Bloomberg Law. Humanitarian parole allows people to live and work in the U.S. for just two years, and the clock is ticking. In the case of Ukrainians, the U.S. government believes most will want to return to Ukraine after the war, but "[i]t’s very difficult to ask people who rebuilt their lives to then leave," said Nili Yossinger, executive director of Refugee Congress. The recently introduced Afghan Adjustment Act would offer certainty to resettled Afghans, Rozen notes. (Read the Forum’s summary of the bill, including its vetting and screening provisions.) 

WAR AND FRIENDSHIP — A U.S. marine and his Afghan interpreter have joined forces on a new memoir, "Always Faithful: A Story of the War in Afghanistan, the Fall of Kabul, and the Unshakable Bond Between a Marine and an Interpreter," Eunice Alpasan of WTTW reports. Maj. Tom Schueman and Zainullah "Zak" Zaki, who co-wrote the book, served alongside each other during the war. Schueman led a successful social media campaign to help Zaki and his family get out of Afghanistan. "He took great danger to his own life and really fought alongside us," Schueman said of Zaki. 

Locally: 

• Medical student Maie Zagloul, founder of nonprofit Books for Chance, recently partnered with the International Institute of Wisconsin to collect books for Afghan families throughout the state, with the goal of improving their English. (Aly Prouty, Spectrum News 1 Wisconsin) 
• A pilot resettlement housing program at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, California, has been providing Afghan evacuees with housing for up to three months. "Our goal is to not only support these refugees as individuals but to set an example for our peer institutions to follow our lead," University President Beth Martin said. (Curtis Driscoll, The Daily Journal) 
• Former Afghan national soccer player Suliman Dawood and his family have found "renewed purpose" serving Afghan dishes at their new restaurant in Santa Rosa, California. While the family is starting to find some stability, thanks in part to help from a local church, they still worry about the loved ones left behind in Afghanistan and are working to bring them to the safety in the U.S. (Liz Kreutz, ABC7) 

Thanks for reading, 

Dan