Friday, October 28
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THE FORUM DAILY

Venezuelan asylum seeker Wilfredo Molina is among the 13 people whom
Border Patrol agents misled in recent weeks, having been sent to a place
where no one was expecting them, Claudia Torrens and Vanessa A. Alvarez
report for the Associated Press
<[link removed]>.  

The migrants showed Torrens and Alvarez the documents they received
after being released from U.S. custody, which included addresses for
administrative offices of Catholic Charities in New York and San
Antonio, a church in El Paso, Texas, a private home in West Bridgewater,
Massachusetts, and an operator of homeless shelters in Salt Lake City. 

"It almost seems as though, at the border, officials are simply just
looking up any nonprofit address they can or just looking up any name at
all that they can and just putting that down without actually ever
checking whether that person has mentioned it, whether there's beds or
shelter at that location, or whether this is even a location that can
provide legal assistance," said Lauren Wyatt, managing attorney with
Catholic Charities of New York. "So clearly, this is not the most
effective way to do this." 

Catholic Charities of New York also has been sent more than 300 notices
to appear in immigration court for people the organization doesn't
know, and deportation orders for migrants who missed court appearances
because notices were sent to a Catholic Charities address. 

"We are deeply concerned that listing these addresses erroneously may
lead to complications for asylum-seekers who are following a legal
process to seek safety in the U.S.," said Stanford Prescott, a spokesman
for International Rescue Committee refugee resettlement office in New
York, where Molina unexpectedly arrived. 

Meanwhile, in an op-ed for The Hill
<[link removed]>,
Human Rights Watch refugee rights director Bill Frelick explains why the
administration's new program for Venezuelans is so problematic. The
one-sentence version: "Providing safe and orderly overseas avenues to
protection is laudable as a supplement to the right to seek asylum at
borders, but not as a substitute for that right."  

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]
<mailto:[email protected]>.   

'I WANT THIS FREEDOM'- It took a year, but Latifa Sharifi, an
Afghan human rights lawyer, finally reunited with her family in Texas
this week, reports Dianne Solis of The Dallas Morning News
<[link removed]>.
"I want this freedom and this safety for all the Afghan women that they
will also be like me, safe," said Sharifi, who had received death
threats from the Taliban for her work defending women's and girls'
rights. For more on this story, tune in to Stella M. Chávez of KERA
<[link removed]>
and Allie Spillyards of NBC DFW
<[link removed]>.
Meanwhile, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) is among 12 governors urging
Congress
<[link removed]>
to pass bipartisan legislation that provides a path to permanent
residency for Afghan evacuees in the U.S., reports Sydnee Gonzalez of
KSL
<[link removed]>.
Also advocating for the Afghan Adjustment Act
<[link removed]>:
Two veterans and a Navy reservist who are traveling around the country
- including stops in Idaho, as Shelbie Harris of the Idaho State
Journal
<[link removed]>
reports. 

HAITIAN TPS - A group of senators is urging the Biden administration
to expand the current Temporary Protected Status
<[link removed]>
(TPS) for Haitians given the criminal and political violence in the
Caribbean country, reports Jacqueline Charles of the Miami Herald
<[link removed]>.
The senators' letter comes as Haiti experiences food and water
shortages as a consequence of a gang alliance blocking its main
seaports. The scarcity only has aggravated the political turmoil that
Haiti faced after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July
2021, followed by an earthquake the next month. The Haiti TPS program
was redesignated in May 2021, but the senators are asking for an
expansion that will allow new recipients. 

**LABOR SHORTAGES** - By 2030, Wisconsin's working-age population
will shrink by 130,000 people, according to a recent study by Forward
Analytics
<[link removed]>.
Researchers found that people age 26 and younger have been leaving the
state for better pay, warmer weather and bigger cities elsewhere,
reports Adriana Daniel of WAOW
<[link removed]>.
"I think part of the issue is the United States in general not changing
our immigration laws and welcoming more immigrants to the United
States," said Will Hsu, President of Hsu Ginseng Enterprise Inc. in
Wausau. Something about immigration stemming population decline
<[link removed]>
and addressing demographic challenges
<[link removed]>
sounds familiar. 

ANTIQUATED LAWS - The shortcomings of the U.S. immigration system are
a growing economic and national security risk, Edward Alden writes in a
column for Foreign Policy
<[link removed]>,
in which he tells the personal story of a friend of his from the tech
industry. "Congress has not revised immigration quotas since 1965, when
the U.S. population was almost 140 million people smaller," Alden
explains. Laws applied to highly educated immigrants haven't been
reviewed since 1990 - before the information technology sector's
boom. Even immigrant professionals with permanent status face many
obstacles, as Davin Tobenkin reports in the Community College Daily
<[link removed]>. In
September, Congress passed the Bridging the Gap for New Americans Act
<[link removed]>,
bipartisan legislation that directs the Department of Labor to study
systemic barriers to employment for immigrants with credentials obtained
in another country. It's a good first step.

Thanks for reading, 

Dan  

 

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