Thursday, September 29
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THE FORUM DAILY

Twenty migrants remain missing after their boat sank off the Florida
coast amid what was then Hurricane Ian, per Al Jazeera
.
The Coast Guard said three others had been rescued south of Boca Chica
in the Florida Keys and taken to the hospital.  

Walter Slosar, chief patrol agent for the Border Patrol's Miami Sector
Headquarters, had taken to Twitter on Monday

to warn people against attempting such a journey: "Over the weekend, 50
migrants from #Cuba were taken into Border Patrol custody after making
landfall during 3 events in the #FloridaKeys on makeshift vessels. The
risks are even greater during a #Hurricane & potentially
life-threatening to anyone onboard. #DontTakeToTheSea." 

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday that
it is temporarily pausing immigration enforcement activities at
Hurricane Ian emergency response and relief sites, reports Axios
'
Shawna Chen. Agencies within the department are available to help
respond to the storm, Chen notes. 

In other news, representatives of more than a dozen Western Hemisphere
countries gathered at the White House earlier this week to continue
working together to address migration and combat human smuggling
networks, reports Priscilla Alvarez of CNN
.
The meeting is the first follow-up to the Los Angeles Declaration

at June's Summit of the Americas.  

Welcome to Thursday'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] .  

DACA - The Biden administration is making alternate plans to protect
more than 600,000 Dreamers who currently have Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals (DACA), report Josh Lederman and Julia Ainsley of
NBC News
.
A 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision on DACA is likely to come
soon and could end it, and the administration is working on executive
action that would deprioritize DACA recipients from deportation, with
exceptions for public safety threats. But, as Lederman and Ainsley note,
a future administration could easily reverse such action. Also, "If the
5th Circuit rules against DACA, 1,000 existing DACA recipients will be
at risk of losing their legal ability to work every single business day
for the next 24 months," said Todd Schulte, the president and executive
director of FWD.us. Yo, Congress: You can find a solution for Dreamers,
and Americans want you to
. 

FARMWORKERS - Apple farmers and immigration advocacy groups from Maine
want the Senate to pass the Farm Workforce Modernization Act
,
reports Ari Snider for Maine Public
.
Harry Ricker, president of the New England Apple Council, said the
timeline for applying for visas means farmers have to predict their
labor needs and risk not having workers arrive in time for the harvest.
The bill would address these and other concerns, Ricker said. Despite
concerns from different corners about the bill, Beth Stickney of the
Maine Business Immigration Coalition emphasizes its key reforms and the
balance it strikes: "When you read the bill, you can tell that it's a
compromise, and neither side got all of what they wanted." 

MIGRANT DEATHS - The fiscal year that ends tomorrow has been the
deadliest for migrants at the southern border, NPR'
s
Joel Rose and Marisa Peñaloza report. More than 800 have died,
according to government figures, and at a pace that is challenging first
respondents and law enforcement officials. CBP blames criminal smugglers
- and those smugglers are in charge thanks in part to the U.S. policy
of "prevention through deterrence." Robin Reineke, a University of
Arizona anthropology professor and co-founder of a nonprofit that
assists families of migrants who have died or gone missing, argues for a
different approach: more legal pathways that would steer migrants away
from dangerous routes. "It's a matter of human life and the costs,
socially and morally to an entire generation of border residents, and
families of those who died crossing," Reineke said.  

AFGHAN AID - A short-term bill to fund the government will exclude the
bipartisan Afghan Adjustment Act
,
despite the 13-day sit-in led by veterans and Afghan allies outside the
Capitol, reports Rebecca Kheel of Military.com
.
The Afghan Adjustment Act "needs to be passed as soon as possible so
[additional] vetting could start and also those Afghans who are in
limbo, they could look into the future and see a light at the end of the
tunnel," said Safi Rauf, a Navy reservist who was held captive by the
Taliban earlier this year after helping Afghans evacuate. "Right now,
it's uncertainty after uncertainty." The short-term bill does include
$3 billion in aid related to Afghan refugee resettlement, which would
extend eligibility for food assistance and other benefits for Afghan
parolees, Kheel notes. 

In welcome: 

* The HOFT Institute , a nonprofit in Texas, is
providing scholarships, textbooks, computers and free English classes to
a group of Ukrainians, as well as one Afghan evacuee, in preparation for
future employment. (Blake DeVine, KXAN
) 

* In partnership with the city of St. Paul, the International Institute
of Minnesota launched the nation's first-of-its-kind pilot program to
provide 25 newly arrived immigrant families $750 per month for a year.
(Zoë Jackson, Star Tribune
) 

LIFEWAY POLL - More on the new Lifeway Research poll

from Michael Foust of ChristianHeadlines.com

who notes that 78% of evangelicals said they would support immigration
reforms that increase border security and establish a process for
immigrants already here. "Evangelical Christians should be looking to
the Bible - not any political party's platform, media personalities
or even a survey of fellow evangelicals - to determine how they
respond to the arrival of immigrants to their communities," said Matthew
Soerens, national coordinator of the Evangelical Immigration Table. 

Thanks for reading, 

Dan 

P.S. Our very own Helena Coric spoke with KTHV
's
Julissa Garza on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on citizenship
applications: "We had this perfect storm in 2020, [as there] was an
existing backlog of applications that weren't being processed ...
Arkansas in particular, that year saw a backlog completion rate below
50%." 

 

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