Monday, August 22
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THE FORUM DAILY

Although former interpreter Khalil Arab fled Afghanistan over a decade
ago due to Taliban threats, he still worries about the loved ones he
left behind in the wake of the U.S.'s departure, Laurie Johnson
reports for Houston Public Media
.  

While Khalil now enjoys helping Afghan immigrants adjust, he has lost
some faith in the Western ideals and values he's teaching them: "The
way we abandoned Afghans in Afghanistan, the way we abandoned those who
literally put their life in the line for us, it makes me wonder if those
values actually matter anymore. If we believe in those values, and if we
believed in those ideals, from the bottom of my heart, I believe we as a
nation, could have done much more." 

In upstate New York, a perhaps unlikely volunteer shares similar
sentiments, as Abigail Hauslohner reports in the Washington Post
.
Kim Staffieri, an accountant, spends four days a week trying to help
Afghan allies who are still in Afghanistan. "If we don't take care of
the folks who worked with our troops, who kept our troops safe, who made
our troops effective over there, the next time we step into a conflict
zone, who is going to help?" Staffieri says.   

Locally: 

* After fleeing Afghanistan with his family a year ago, Shakib Qadri is
now a YWCA Tulsa case manager, supporting Afghan evacuees with
employment placement and support, interpretation and translation, and
more. (Tim Stanley, Tulsa World
) 

* With support from Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services in New
Haven, lawmakers, advocates and Afghan evacuees in Connecticut are
pushing for Congress to pass the Afghan Adjustment Act to help bring
their at-risk families to safety in the U.S. (Matt McFarland and Evan
Sobol, WFSB
) 

Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and
Refugee Service, puts a finer point on why we need an Afghan Adjustment
Act in an op-ed in The Hill
. 

Welcome to Monday's edition of The Forum Daily. I'm Dan
Gordon, the Forum's strategic communications VP. If you have a story
to share from your own community, please send it to me at
[email protected]. 
 

**BUSINESSES' ALARM** - In Fortune
,
CEOs Dick Burke of Envoy Global and Ray Walia of Launch Academy
highlight the growing alarm among U.S. businesses at the lack of
immigration reforms. Congress' failure to include immigration
components in the recently passed CHIPS and Science Act "is a missed
opportunity for the U.S. - and a setback in the important national
goal of seeding and accelerating American innovation in critical
technologies," they write. Meanwhile, Canada is seeing the benefits of
its own startup visa program. Over in National Defense

magazine, Dr. Mark J. Lewis and Divyansh Kaushik underscore that this
kind of immigration is a national-security issue as well - a point
leaders on the Council on National Security and Immigration also have
been making
. 

**ENFORCEMENT** - The Biden administration has worked to change
immigration enforcement priorities from the previous administration,
which made "nearly every immigrant without legal status a priority for
arrest - even if the person had deep roots in the U.S. and no criminal
record," Hamed Aleaziz and Alejandra Reyes-Velarde report in the Los
Angeles Times
.
But court challenges put the current administration's priorities in
limbo. On the state level in Texas, an increase in state highway
troopers is stopping and citing more local residents as a result of Gov.
Greg Abbott's (R) Operation Lone Star, Suzanne Gamboa and Joe Murphy
write in a deep dive for NBC News
.
The stops "are increasingly seen by some residents as targeted at
Latinos or at people who fit a stereotype," they write, and civil rights
groups have asked the Department of Justice to investigate.  

**STILL WAITING** - Ten years later, recipients of Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals are frustrated that a temporary program remains,
well, temporary, Maya Rao reports in the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune
.
Only Congress has the power to offer a permanent solution for DACA
recipients and other Dreamers, Rao notes. "We're used as pawns," said
Sarahi Silva, a volunteer at a workshop on Saturday. " ... [W]e're tired
of not being ... considered a part of the U.S. and still contributing so
much financially. And it's quite mentally exhausting." Speaking of DACA
recipients and of waiting, friend of the Forum Matthew Soerens of World
Relief explains in The Dispatch

that immigrants would be more than willing to "wait their turn" - if
there were a turn to wait for. 

**CLIMATE MIGRATION** - In her upcoming book "Nomad Century: How to
Survive the Climate Upheaval," Gaia Vince explains the urgent need to
develop a global plan to address climate migration and protect the
vulnerable, per an excerpt in The Guardian
.
"How we manage this global crisis, and how humanely we treat each other
as we migrate, will be key to whether this century of upheaval proceeds
smoothly or with violent conflict and unnecessary deaths," she writes.
"Managed right, this upheaval could lead to a new global commonwealth of
humanity." Among Vince's recommendations are creating a global climate
migration pact long-term and regional free movement agreements, which
the EU has already implemented, short-term.  

**OPEN MINDS** - Leaders from Storm Lake, Iowa, talked about their
experiences recognizing the value of diversity in their community this
month in a program hosted by Nueva Vida en Greene County, a diversity
initiative launched last November, per Greene County News Online
.
"The Storm Lake Story" event promoted active listening and an open mind.
"Invite your people of color, your different ethnic groups, to be a part
of that. ... It has to be your philosophy of welcoming and working and
being able to pivot and adapt and open your arms to other folks," said
retired Storm Lake police chief (and Forum board member) Mark Prosser. 

Thanks for reading,  

Dan 

 

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