Monday, November 21
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THE FORUM DAILY

Coming to you this chilly Monday morning while not also watching the
World Cup. Really I'm not. (Yet.) 

While we watch, it's worth noting the poor conditions for migrant
workers who have made the competition possible. That includes the
"forgotten team" that helped build the stadium, including hundreds of
thousands of Nepali migrant workers, as Tariq Panja and Bhadra Sharma
reported in The New York Times
<[link removed]>.
Human rights organizations say thousands have died in the process. And
just yesterday, Panja reported
<[link removed]>
on migrant workers stranded by their employers - "without food, water
and toilet facilities for seven hours" - as the Cup kicked off. 

Back stateside, we're seeing some potential movement in four areas
where targeted immigration reforms are urgent. 

Senate Democrats have renewed conversations with Republicans about
finding a solution at least for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
(DACA) recipients - together with addressing challenges at the border
- before the end of the year, Priscilla Alvarez and Daniella Diaz
report for CNN
<[link removed]>.
There's new evidence that such a solution would help our workforce: A
new report
<[link removed]>
by two groups that mentor and financially assist students with DACA
indicates that graduates of the programs have a 94 percent workforce
participation rate, Rafael Bernal writes in The Hill
<[link removed]>. 

On the farm workforce side, migrant worker Lulu Guerrero of Colorado was
among those advocating on Capitol Hill last week for the Farm Workforce
Modernization Act
<[link removed]>,
John Aguilar reports in the Denver Post
<[link removed]>.
Also advocating for it: International Fresh Produce Association CEO
Cathy Burns
<[link removed]>,
in her conversation at our "Leading the Way" convening. "With a legal
immigrant workforce, you can actually lower inflation and drive up
American wages," she said. "The time is now to pass the [Farm Workforce
Modernization Act]." 

And on the bipartisan Afghan Adjustment Act
<[link removed]>,
our own Midwest mobilizer Jason Lief writes in the Des Moines Register
<[link removed]>
that his Senator Chuck Grassley (R) should reconsider his opposition.
Jason does a great job responding directly to concerns Grassley's
staff have laid out. And in The Kansas City Star
<[link removed]>,
letter writer Julie Doane translates the local welcome she has witnessed
into the need for senators to act now.  

Welcome to Monday'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]>.  

**ROOM TO GROW** - Eric Berger of The Guardian
<[link removed]>
visits Caruthersville, in the Missouri Bootheel, to write about
declining population growth and whether immigration could be the answer.
"Immigration is sort of the extra safety valve we have for population
growth in the United States," said William Frey, a demographer at the
Brookings Institution. "It's unaffected by the [aging] of our current
population because immigrants tend to be younger, and they also have
children, which makes the population younger." Our Room to Grow paper
<[link removed]>
examines this question, too.  

**EXPENSIVE SEATS** - Curious: Florida has paid an aviation company
within the state more than $1.56 million to fly about 50 migrants to
Martha's Vineyard, even though a charter flight company in Ohio had
quoted a price of $153,000, Samantha J. Gross and Mike Damiano report in
the Boston Globe
<[link removed]>.
Florida officials had not responded to inquiries about what happened to
the remaining $1.4 million. Recently released documents also indicate
that the state paid for flights that have not taken place, Gross and
Damiano report. 

**WORK VISA PLEDGE** - The State Department is pledging to reduce wait
times for tourists, students and workers, Michelle Hackman of The Wall
Street Journal
<[link removed]>
reports. The demand for visas is so high that potential visa applicants
need to book months or years ahead. The department plans to hire more
consular staff and increase the number of available visa appointments to
speed up processing by the end of next year. "It's been really painful
for us," said Karan Bhatia, vice president of public affairs at Google.
"In a nutshell, when you have employees or partners that are unable to
travel to the United States in a timely way, it just becomes really hard
to operate a competitive global business." 

**FIVE WEEKS** - The Biden administration has five weeks to fully
unwind the Title 42 policy. Felipe De La Hoz of The New Republic
<[link removed]>
has a good analysis: "[H]ow it responds in this interim period will set
the tone for the federal government's posture toward humanitarian
migration for the foreseeable future." De La Hoz points to solutions
like reforming the refugee system and better processing migrants in
advance. (Sounds familiar
<[link removed]>.)
"What definitely shouldn't happen - but is absolutely in the cards
- is a turn toward draconian enforcement of a different type," he
writes. 

**FAITH VOICES** - It was great to meet our board member Bishop Mark
Seitz of El Paso in person last week, and congratulations to him as he
becomes the first bishop from a border diocese to lead the U.S.
Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Migration, as John
Lavenburg of Crux
<[link removed]>
reports. Meanwhile, Southern Baptist Pastor Eric Costanzo of Tulsa,
Oklahoma, speaks with The Dispatch
<[link removed]>'s
David French and Curtis Chang on welcoming refugees and immigrants -
have a listen. 

Thanks for reading, 

Dan 

 

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