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: 

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.