Now for today’s Daily:  

As Missouri and Kansas farms continue to face labor shortages, a group of agriculture industry leaders is calling on the states’ senators to pass the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, reports Kassidy Arena for KBIA. 

"This is not just about cost," said Enrique Sanchez of American Business Immigration Coalition Action. "These are national security issues as well. Food security is national security. A nation that cannot feed itself is not a nation that is secure."  

John Pepitone of FOX4 has more. "It’s urgent that we get that passed so that farmers like me and other farmers in Kansas can get the labor that we need," said Lyndsi Oestmann of Ottawa, Kansas, a member of AmericanHort. "So we don’t have to worry day-to-day and week-to-week if we are going to have enough labor to get the job done that we need to get done." 

Welcome to Friday’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]. 

AFGHAN CHILDREN — There are more than 230 unaccompanied Afghan children in the U.S. while their parents or guardians remain in Afghanistan, a team at NBC News reports. Quick reunions are unlikely: Only one flight with evacuees leaves Kabul weekly, and some countries where Afghans wait while applying to enter the U.S. have stopped accepting Afghans. "These children have experienced far more trauma than any child ever should," said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. "The urgency of this moment means doing whatever it takes to reunite these vulnerable children with their families. ... These children can’t afford to wait decades for the United States to keep its promise to those left behind." 

Locally: 

• A newly launched pilot program at the International Institute of Minnesota — "the nation’s first guaranteed income program" for new arrivals — is providing 25 immigrant families $750 a month for a year, including Afghan families who recently arrived. (Hibah Ansari, Sahan Journal) 

GREEN CARDS — U.S. immigration authorities expect to use all employment green cards available for the fiscal year ending this month, a USCIS priority after not all were used last year, Michelle Hackman reports for The Wall Street Journal. "We know so many people have been waiting and so many people have been nervous about another loss-of-visa situation, and those are real people," said the agency’s director, Ur Jaddou. In fiscal year 2021, the agency had 120,000 extra employment-based green cards available. But due to staffing shortages and backlogs, USCIS couldn’t process 68,000 of them in time. 

ONLY TEMPORARY — A recent Biden administration initiative under which at least 24 deported veterans have returned to the U.S. offers no guarantee of permanent status, per Suzanne Monyak of Roll Call. They are granted humanitarian parole, a temporary status that "has no inherent path to citizenship and no guarantee it won’t be revoked or allowed to expire." While advocates believe the initiative is a step in the right direction, the process has been "slow-moving," and lawyers note there are limited legal options for pathways to citizenship. "... [T]o correct a lot of these issues, legislation is needed," said Robert Vivar, co-director of Unified U.S. Deported Veterans. "How are you going to tell my children that they can have their daddy back, but then you’re going to tear us apart again after a year?" said Juan Quiroz, a U.S. Army veteran and father of four. "It doesn’t make sense." 

BANNON — On Thursday, Stephen K. Bannon was charged with money laundering, fraud and conspiracy in the "We Build the Wall" fundraising effort, reports Shayna Jacobs of The Washington Post. Prosecutors say Bannon kept $1 million in donations for the cash drive, but the indictment focuses on alleged funneling of funds through a nonprofit to pay the organization’s president and CEO, "despite explicit, repeated pledges to donors that their money would not be used for that purpose." Bannon "acted as the architect of a multi-million dollar scheme to defraud thousands of donors across the country — including hundreds of Manhattan residents," Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement.  

WEEKEND READS — "I began to see that Kansas City was just as much my home as anyone else’s," writes Diana Martinez Quintana, a DACA recipient and policy entrepreneur at policy think tank Next100, for the Kansas Reflector. "The only difference for me was that I needed to fight to be able to stay." And in The Los Angeles Times, Maria Duarte, an essayist, poet and DACA recipient, writes eloquently about living in limbo in this country: "I do not know Mexico; I know California. I have formed a life here ... adjusting to the nuances of this melting pot. What else can I do to be considered worthy of citizenship, to be given a piece of paper that will allow me to live without fear?" 

Thanks for reading, 

Dan 

P.S. Don’t miss this letter 385 state and local elected officials from across the country sent President Biden on Thursday, calling on him to rebuild the refugee resettlement program with urgency. The International Refugee Assistance Project has more details.