Friday, December 9
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THE FORUM DAILY

There's still time for Republicans and Democrats in the current
Congress to act on border and immigration reforms, our Senior Fellow and
Reagan White House alumna Linda Chavez writes this morning in Real Clear
Politics
<[link removed]>. 

Politically, there's plenty of blame to go around, she notes. In the
end, "The shortage in immigrant workers as a result of Trump-era
policies and the failure of Congress to act are major contributors to
our current labor shortage, which, in turn, spurs inflation. ... All of
us pay for the failure to reform our immigration laws." 

Here's more evidence that the stakes are high for action voters want
this year
<[link removed]>:
Yesterday House Republicans introduced a 13-page border security
proposal <[link removed]> for the next
Congress, Caroline Coudriet of Roll Call
<[link removed]>
reports. It's heavy on policies that have done little to stem
migration and conspicuously light on compassion; among other things, it
would defund nonprofit groups that are aiding migrants at and near the
border. 

Meanwhile, Gloria Rebecca Gomez of the Arizona Mirror
<[link removed]>
shares the stories of Dreamers themselves. "Who here has heard the
question: Where do you want to be in five years?" asked Deferred Action
for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient Oscar Romero. "Imagine not being
able to answer that - with your life in this country revolving on a
two-year cycle." 

"My future is in the hands of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and Thom Tillis," said
fellow DACA recipient Delia Rodriguez. "With their help, we can find a
national solution that takes my life plans out of limbo and allows me to
pursue my ambitions without fear and anxiety." 

The clock is ticking on the senators' proposal
<[link removed]>, which
would strengthen border security and offer many Dreamers the opportunity
to earn citizenship, as Gomez reports. 

Sinema has some other news today
<[link removed]>.
But "[f]or those who support my work to secure the southern border,
ensure fair and humane treatment for migrants and permanently protect
'Dreamers' who are Americans in all but name, those will remain my
priorities," she writes.  

Welcome to Friday's edition of The Forum Daily. I'm Dan
Gordon, the Forum's strategic communications VP, and the great Forum
Daily team also includes Dynahlee Padilla-Vasquez, Clara Villatoro and
Katie Lutz. If you have a story to share from your own community, please
send it to me at [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>. 

**FOR OUR AFGHAN ALLIES** - GOP Senators removed Special Immigrant
Visa language from the National Defense Authorization Act text Tuesday,
reports J.P. Lawrence of Stars and Stripes
<[link removed]>.
That increases the urgency for the Afghan Adjustment Act, which Cindy M.
Wu separately advocates for in an op-ed for the Houston Chronicle
<[link removed]>.
"With the recent increase in Afghans arriving to Houston over the past
year and the ongoing delay in passing the Afghan Adjustment Act, it has
become increasingly apparent to Texans that our country is failing to
live up to the promise to give our Afghan allies a home," writes Wu, a
faith leader and nonprofit program manager. Jeff Heidkamp, a former
pastor and public-school teacher who is now an immigration law clerk in
Minneapolis, makes the same case in an op-ed for Religion News Service
<[link removed]>. 

Locally: 

* In partnership with Catholic Charities of Arkansas' Refugee
Resettlement Office, several churches have helped resettle 88 Afghans in
the Little Rock area. (Chris Price, Arkansas Catholic
<[link removed]>) 

* Through the nonprofit Welcome.US <[link removed]>, Google
recently donated refurbished laptops to more than 500 refugee families
who resettled in southern California. (Yusra Farzan, The Orange County
Register
<[link removed]>) 

**MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES** - Fourteen Customs and Border Protection
(CBP) agents have committed suicide this year alone - the highest
number in 13 years. A bipartisan group of lawmakers is planning to
introduce a bill this week to address agents' mental health, report
Benjamin Siegel and Lauren Peller of ABC News
<[link removed]>.
"The folks who are manning the southern border are bearing the brunt of
our failed policies," said Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Michigan). "We are
willing to work with anyone on the right or the left to deal with that
crisis." In the meantime, CBP plans to further expand the number of
on-site clinicians and hire more than a dozen operational psychologists.
Combined, they would implement "an evidence-based suicide prevention and
intervention program," per a CBP spokesperson. 

**BORDER DEMOGRAPHICS** - The demographic makeup of people seeking
refuge at the southern border is changing, Tristan Richards of Cronkite
News
<[link removed]>
reports. That's posing challenges for an American government whose
policies mainly are geared toward Mexican migrants. Our policy expert
Danilo Zak makes a key point about the large increases in migration from
countries such as Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua: "All of those countries
are going through crises." The Darién Gap jungle in Panama has even
become a "major migrant pathway" in recent years, he notes. "It's not
because it's less dangerous, it's because people are fleeing more
extreme circumstances." 

**EUROPEAN BORDER VIOLENCE** - Thousands of migrants and asylum
seekers have faced "an unprecedented rise in violence," at European
borders between 2021 and 2022. That's according to a 3,173-page report
<[link removed]> by
nonprofits of the Border Violence Monitoring Network
<[link removed]>, which gathered testimonies from 15
countries, Jennifer Rankin of The Guardian
<[link removed]>
reports in a tough read. The report alleges that border guards in 13
countries began using "gruesome 'deterrence tactics,' such as
prolonged beatings, shaving of heads, forced undressing, sexual assaults
and dog attacks, among others." As we grapple with more than 89 million
people displaced <[link removed]>
worldwide, we must remember their human dignity and human rights. 

**METRO MOVES** - Really interesting: A new study
<[link removed]>
by the Bush Institute reveals the top metro areas where immigrants are
moving "and thriving," with many heading toward the Sun Belt region,
reports Stef W. Kight of Axios
<[link removed]>.
Metro areas "experiencing large inflows of foreign-born people are
benefiting tremendously by attracting these people," said Cullum Clark,
director of the economic growth initiative at the George W. Bush
Institute-SMU. Make sure to look at the map showing the highest net
domestic migration from 2010 to 2020 and the list of top ten metro areas
for immigrants' well-being. 

Thanks for reading, 

Dan

 

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