Wednesday October 26, 2022
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THE FORUM DAILY

Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh said it loud and clear: Business leaders
support immigration reform, and reform will be critical to the
country's workforce, reports Eric Rosenbaum of CNBC
<[link removed]>. 

"We need a bipartisan fix here. I'll tell you right now if we don't
solve immigration ... we're talking about worrying about recessions,
we're talking about inflation. [But] I think we're going to have a
bigger catastrophe if we don't get more workers into our society, and
we do that by immigration," Walsh said.  

Farmers also have been sounding the alarm, as Heather Sells of CBN News
<[link removed]>
reports, and the Farm Workforce Modernization Act
<[link removed]>
could address labor shortages, reduce food prices, and keep our food
made in America - a national security concern. (The video is worth a
watch.) For more on food prices and food security, read former George W.
Bush administration officials Douglas Baker and Chuck Conner's op-ed
in Fox News
<[link removed]>
earlier this year.  

Eleanor Mueller of Politico
<[link removed]>
writes how - in the absence of broad immigration reform - employers
are calling for at least "a smaller-scale immigration fix" that could
include the farm workforce bill.  

"The question is, do you want to keep importing your food or your labor?
And we want our food to be domestically produced. So we need labor,"
said Rebecca Shi, executive director of the American Business
Immigration Coalition. 

Meanwhile, a new study by the National Bureau of Economic Research
<[link removed]>
shows that "temporary work visas allow firms to expand and hire more
U.S. workers," Stuart Anderson writes in Forbes
<[link removed]>.
A survey of businesses that participated in the 2021 H-2B visa lottery
"reveals little benefit, and substantial costs, due to restricting
firms' access to these visas," the report's authors write. " ...
"[G]aining access to immigrant hires raises firm revenues . . . and also
weakly raises, rather than lowers, their employment of U.S. workers." 

They add that increasing the availability of H-2B visas permanently
would spur even greater benefits for American workers, businesses and
the economy. 

Paging Congress and the administration, Republicans and Democrats: We
need immigration solutions to fight inflation, help American workers and
strengthen our economy. And Americans want reforms this year
<[link removed]>. 

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]
<mailto:[email protected]>.   

Also a quick reminder for reporters: A group of Christian women is
visiting the border at El Paso, Texas, and Juárez, Mexico, this week
with We Welcome <[link removed]>, and some of the
participants are available for interview. Reporters, please send
inquiries my way. 

**IMMIGRANTS HELP REBUILD** - The Lake Charles, Louisiana, area faced
a series of hurricanes and other weather disasters in 2020 and 2021.
Now, new Latino immigrants are helping rebuild and reinvigorate the
city, reports Alena Maschke of The Advocate
<[link removed]>.
"[Migrants] come here to work, to help their families. Where there is
work, they will go," said Martin Benitez, an immigrant himself and a
general contractor from Houston who has been part of the region's
rebuilding efforts. The U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey
estimated that in 2020 that there were 4,830 immigrants from Latin
America living in the region in 2021, up from 2,475 in 2020. "I have
lived through some tough things here, but it has been worth it," said
Aleida Cabieles, originally from Honduras. "I feel like Lake Charles has
given me more than my own country." 

**CUBAN MIGRANTS** - The U.S. Coast Guard returned 319 Cuban migrants
detained at sea just this past weekend for a total of 921 this month,
reports Rafael Bernal of The Hill
<[link removed]>.
Before the revocation of the policy commonly known as "Wet Foot, Dry
Foot" in 2017, most Cubans attempted to arrive in the U.S. by boat, but
now thousands are seeking asylum at the southern border. U.S. Customs
and Border Protection (CBP) reported more than 220,000 encounters of
Cubans <[link removed]> during
fiscal year 2022. For more on the experience of Cuban migrants at the
border, Lisette Poole's photo essay in Americas Quarterly
<[link removed]>
is certainly worth a few thousand words. 

**SOLIDARITY AMONG SCHOLARS** - Researchers at Michigan State
University have helped welcome and resettle 12 Afghan scholars, reports
Sophia Saliby of WKAR
<[link removed]>.
Previously, the scholars worked together in an agricultural research
project in Afghanistan. When the Taliban took control, Kurt Richter, the
project leader at Michigan State, helped facilitate the Afghans'
evacuation, first to Albania, where they were able to enroll in a
special Master of Science program in horticulture while they waited to
come to Michigan. "We had to leave everything behind for a better and a
safer life and a better future," said Latifa Salangi, one of the
resettled scholars.  

**'LOVING THE STRANGERS'**- Catherine McNiel reflects in
Christianity Today
<[link removed]> 
about the Christian call to love the strangers among us through her own
experience meeting Syrian refugees. The piece is an excerpt from her
book "Fearing Bravely: Risking Love for Our Neighbors, Strangers, and
Enemies." McNiel notes that the topic goes beyond politics: "How we
treat strangers is such a hot topic for social and political debate in
our world today that it might be hard for us to remember who's talking
in this story: This is not a pundit or a reporter, not a conservative or
a liberal. This is Jesus, the Son of God, from the right hand of the
Father. Those of us who follow Jesus must take this seriously,
regardless of the current political climate." 

Thanks for reading, 

Dan 

 

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