Farmers are saying the bill could counter labor shortages and result in lower food prices. "I would hire domestic workers, but they don’t seem to exist," said Stephanie Mickelsen, an Idaho potato farmer.  

Added Charles Wingard, a family farmer in South Carolina who grows leafy greens, "We supply to big grocery chains, and they don’t care that we’ve got labor problems. They only want us to fill the orders and make sure the truck is loaded properly and delivered on time. There’s always a pressure there."  

In The Hill, Rafael Bernal reports on the prospects for the legislation — and underscores farmers’ support for it. "Without immigrant workers, without these ag workers, these guest workers, we don’t put food on the American table," said Shay Myers, CEO of Owyhee Produce, an onion grower in Oregon and Idaho. "And that’s just an open secret. And we need to realize that that’s the case and fix the problem." 

The Washington Post’s Editorial Board broadens the scope on the need for immigration solutions to address labor shortages and demographic challenges: "[W]ithout a more forward-looking immigration policy, one more closely aligned with labor-force demands in an economy starved for workers, the nation’s long-term economic growth prospects will be stunted." Labor Secretary Marty Walsh sounded a similar theme on MSNBC yesterday. 

Welcome back to Jennie Murray, who will return to the Forum next month as our new president and CEO. And welcome to Wednesday’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]. 

FEWER REFUGEES RESETTLED — Late yesterday the Biden administration released refugee resettlement data for August, and as usual, our own Danilo Zak is on top of the numbers. They are disappointing: The 2,229 resettled refugees were a 14% drop from July, and with only September to go, we’re on pace to resettle fewer than 22,000 refugees total this fiscal year — more than 100,000 fewer than the 125,000 "ceiling." Danilo points out that as the president considers the ceiling for the next fiscal year, questions are increasing about why the number actually resettled remains so low. We also resettled no Uyghur refugees in July or August — just as a new UN report on China’s treatment of Muslim minorities sheds light on "firsthand allegations of human rights abuses based on interviews with 40 people of Uyghur, Kazakh and Kyrgyz ethnicities," reported Jessie Yeung of CNN last week.  

ON THE BORDER — Migrants from different countries are taking different routes to the U.S., Elliot Spagat of the Associated Press reports — and Mexicans are making up a smaller percentage of migrants encountered overall. "What we know with absolute certainty is that the smuggling organizations control the flow," said John Modlin, the Border Patrol’s Tucson, Arizona, sector chief. "They decide who goes where and when they go to the point." Meanwhile, Eileen Sullivan of The New York Times takes a look at how asylum seekers awaiting hearings are integrating, despite the challenges and politics surrounding their arrival. And for Catholic News Service, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, retired bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y., writes that governors’ busing of migrants to other states underscores "that immigration reform is long overdue." 

SPOILER ALERT — We’ve mentioned the new Netflix series "Mo" before. It’s set in Houston, and in the Houston Chronicle, Elizabeth Trovall explores how the show’s portrayals of immigrant life and challenges compare with reality. 

Thanks for reading, 

P.S. A couple of sports notes: While we cheer Frances Tiafoe’s victory over Rafael Nadal in the U.S. open and await his quarterfinal match today, take a minute to reread his great back story. And as football season begins, reporter Jeong Park’s personal immigration story in The Los Angeles Times, including college football as refuge, is worth a read.