Monday, November 7
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THE FORUM DAILY

Tomorrow is Election Day! Immigration and border policy are a top issue
for voters, notes Daniel Darling, director of the Land Center for
Cultural Engagement in an op-ed for USA Today
<[link removed]>.
Evangelical Christians are among the most influential of them. 

In the latest Lifeway Research
<[link removed]>
poll, 71% of evangelicals said it is crucial for Congress to pass
immigration reform this year. Seventy-eight percent said they would
support legislation that would "both increase border security and
establish a rigorous process to earn legal status and apply for
citizenship," for those who meet eligibility requirements. 

Moreover, 92% of evangelical voters in the poll agreed that unity of the
family and human dignity (90%) should be the guiding principle for
immigration reform. 

"... [T]he message from evangelicals to Congress couldn't be more
clear: please be serious about fixing a broken border and a broken
immigration system," writes Darling. "Admittedly, the issue of
immigration is complex, and good people will differ on exactly how to
proceed. But perhaps the next Congress could begin with a few items:
increasing money for border security and passing legislation that allows
children brought here a pathway to citizenship." 

Amos Humphries, the Senior Pastor of Park Lake Drive Baptist Church in
Waco, Texas, agrees. In an op-ed for the Christian Post
<[link removed]>,
he underscores the Lifeway Research poll as a prime example of
evangelicals being compelled by their faith to see immigration as an
asset.  

"Welcoming immigrants is a great opportunity for the church to step up
and be a real voice to the vulnerable," he writes. "Where we have failed
to represent the Kingdom of God in the past, immigration provides an
opportunity for the church to redeem itself by being a united voice for
the love, compassion, and justice of Jesus Christ." 

The message from this influential group of voters is clear. Congress
must act and provide long-lasting immigration solutions. 

Welcome to Monday's edition of The Forum Daily. I'm Clara
Villatoro, the Forum's strategic communications manager. If you have
a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at
[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>. 

AT

**THE BORDER** - Annalisa Quinn of the Boston Globe Magazine
<[link removed]>
reports the story of La Iglesia Fronteriza, or "the border church,"
which has been offering weekly, bilingual, interdenominational service
on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border since the early 2000s. Today,
further border wall developments divide Tijuana, Mexico, from San Diego,
California, and continue to physically separate immigrant families by 50
feet. At first, the church was an "opportunity of [migrants] being able
to meet here at the border wall," said Robert Vivar, who came to the
U.S. when he was six. But these days, "They cannot come right up to the
border wall and have an intimate conversation, or even share a pinky
kiss."  

* Meanwhile, faith-based nonprofit Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas,
is helping with the increase of asylum seekers at the southwest border
by busing migrants to their next destination, reports Cindy Ramirez of
El Paso Matters
<[link removed]>.
(For more on how nonprofits are supporting transportation efforts,
despite the challenges, see reports from The Texas Tribune
<[link removed]>
and CBS News
<[link removed]>). 

**AG REFORM** - Passing the bipartisan Farm Workforce Modernization
Act
<[link removed]>
would address critical labor shortages, decrease inflation, and improve
food security, write Dante Galeazzi and Bret Erickson, agriculture and
business advocates in Texas, for an op-ed in The Dallas Morning News
<[link removed]>.
But Congress and others must act. "We have a solution, but it will take
leadership to make that solution a reality," they write. "Sens. Cornyn
and Cruz must help get farm workforce solutions done this year. Save the
politics for the hard stuff - this is an easy one." Our policy expert
Arturo Castellanos-Canales underscores the need for reforms and
legislative solutions in his new paper
<[link removed]>. 

**GRANDI'S WORDS** - As part of the 27th Conference of the Parties
to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27
<[link removed]>),
head of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, is
urging world leaders to not forget the millions of displaced people due
to climate change. Speaking of displacement, Grandi underscored just
last week how Russia's invasion of Ukraine has displaced nearly 14
million Ukrainians in "the fastest, largest displacement witnessed in
decades." The increase has surmounted to 103 million displaced people
worldwide, per Edith M. Lederer of the Associated Press
<[link removed]>.
Stateside, Grandi is pleading
<[link removed]>
with "all states to stand in solidarity with Haiti and urge them not to
return Haitians to a country that is extremely fragile" as the country
grapples with increased political instability and gang violence, per Al
Jazeera
<[link removed]>.  

**TEXAS' WORKFORCE** - We need real immigration solutions to
strengthen our workforce and economy at state and federal levels in
Texas, writes John McCord, executive director for the Texas Retailers
Association, in a column for The Dallas Morning News
<[link removed]>.
Immigrants make up more than 20% of Texas' workforce
<[link removed]>
and over 95% of the population
<[link removed]> who are eligible
for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) are already employed,
he notes. "However, change must come from our leaders in Congress, and
it is our hope that our representatives will act before the end of the
year to establish a pathway to citizenship so our businesses can
continue servicing communities across the great state of Texas while
growing the economy," he concludes. 

'BROUGHT TO YOU BY IMMIGRANTS'- "The World Series is brought to
you by immigrants," says a new electronic billboard in Philadelphia near
the stadium where the Phillies and Astros met in Game Five, reports Jeff
Gammage of The Philadelphia Inquirer
<[link removed]>.
Erika Almiron, the Philadelphia senior organizer for Mijente
<[link removed]>, said the billboard helps to counter the negative
anti-immigrant ads surrounding the election cycle. "This is about
producing a different narrative about immigrants and about Latinos.
Every time a Latino immigrant comes up to bat, and gets a hit and wins
the game, we love that, right?" Almiron said. On that note, many
congrats to the Houston Astros
<[link removed]>,
who won the franchise's second World Series title on Saturday. 

Thanks for reading, 

Clara  

 

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