Monday, December 12
 ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌


 

THE FORUM DAILY

Looks like there still isn't bill text of the bipartisan immigration
framework <[link removed]>
Sens. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Arizona)
announced a week ago. For a bill to have any chance this Congress, that
text needs to be finished yesterday. (Hopefully not literally.) 

On the border security front, the framework would provide at least $25
billion, including a 14% pay increase for Border Patrol agents and the
hiring of an additional 600 Customs and Border Protection field
operations officers for ports of entry, Adam Shaw of Fox News
<[link removed]> reports.
It also would invest in U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
(USCIS) officers and the immigration court system, and "recapture"
unused employment visas from past fiscal years. 

The bill has a chance to right "two glaring wrongs," George F. Will
writes in a column for The Washington Post
<[link removed]>.
"Today, large majorities endorse two propositions: Secure borders, a
core component of national sovereignty, require a substantial and
immediate infusion of resources. And the treatment of the dreamers has
been unworthy of the nation that is already benefiting from their
unreciprocated loyalty." 

Business groups in agriculture and technology also are standing behind
the potential bipartisan framework, report Shannon Pettypiece and Scott
Wong of NBC News
<[link removed]>. 

"We look forward to working with [the senators] over the next few weeks
to move legislation forward that provides critical resources to properly
secure our border, enacts much-needed reforms to our asylum laws,
improves the operation of our legal immigration system, and brings real,
lasting relief to Dreamers across the country," said Jon Baselice, vice
president of immigration policy at the Chamber of Commerce.  

On Friday, the Council on National Security and Immigration
<[link removed]>
weighed in on the effort as well.  

Welcome to Monday'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]>. 

**THE COST OF INACTION** - Congress must provide a permanent solution
this year for Dreamers who only know and call Oklahoma City home,
John-Mark Hart, pastor of Christ Community Church at Rancho Village,
writes in an op-ed for The Oklahoman
<[link removed]>.
"If Congress does not act soon, Dreamers will be forced to return to the
shadows, their families will suffer, their workplaces will experience
catastrophic labor shortages, and their neighborhoods will likely lose a
generation of community leaders. Congressional inaction will mean a
self-inflicted humanitarian crisis with multi-generational
consequences," he writes. "Continued inaction on this matter is a moral
failure. We need leaders in Congress to reach across the aisle and
address our broken immigration system because millions of lives hang in
the balance." The Bangor Daily News
<[link removed]>
editorial board strikes a similar chord.  

'A REAL SHAME' - After being employed by the U.S. military for
nearly two years, former Afghan interpreter  Zainullah "Zak" Zaki was
denied a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV), reports Mac Caltrider of Coffee
or Die Magazine
<[link removed]>. The
State Department rejected his application due to "insufficient length of
employment" even though Zaki was employed by the U.S. military longer
than required, Caltrider reports. "Even if Zak didn't do all the
heroic and exceptional things that he did in Sangin, even if he was just
your standard interpreter, he would still rate an SIV according to their
criteria," Marine Corps Maj. Thomas Schueman said. "It's just a real
shame." Zaki plans to apply for asylum as a last resort to avoid
deportation. Meanwhile, The Washington Post
<[link removed]>'s
Abigail Hauslohner chronicles Army veteran Matt Zeller's drive across
the U.S. to try to draw attention to the Afghan Adjustment Act
<[link removed]>,
which would help us keep our promises to our allies. (You can still take
take action here <[link removed]>.) 

BORDER NEWS - Sheriff David Hathaway of Santa Cruz County, Arizona, is
calling on federal agents to seize any equipment involved in Gov. Doug
Ducey's (R) effort to move shipping containers to build a wall that
has been deemed illegal, reports Ryan Devereaux of The Intercept
<[link removed]>.
Hathaway says that for weeks, Ducey's contractors have been
transporting shipping containers at dangerous speeds through his county
even though federal officials have repeatedly told Ducey that his
actions are unauthorized and unlawful. "I've advised my deputies to
especially scrutinize that area looking for speed violations, reckless
endangerment, reckless driving," Hathaway said. 

1929 LAW- In appealing a lower court's ruling
<[link removed]>,
the Justice Department said Thursday that a 1929 law that criminalizes
entry into the U.S. after deportation was motivated by racism "but said
subsequent revisions made it constitutional," reports Rio Yamat of the
Associated Press
<[link removed]>.
U.S. District Judge Miranda Du had dismissed an illegal re-entry charge
against Mexican immigrant Gustavo Carrillo-Lopez in an August 2021
order. Should the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals uphold Du's ruling,
the government would be unable to prosecute unlawful re-entry in the 10
states under the circuit's jurisdiction.  

**MASS EXODUS** - Cuba is undergoing a historic exodus, beyond the
1980 Mariel boatlift and the large numbers who left in 1994, report Ed
Augustin and Frances Robles of The New York Times
<[link removed]>.
An estimated 250,000 Cubans - more than 2 percent of the island's 11
million population - have migrated to the U.S. this year alone, per
U.S. government
<[link removed]> data. That
number doesn't include thousands who have fled for other countries,
according to City University of New York anthropologist Katrin Hansing.
Cuba's severe poverty, the pandemic and U.S. sanctions are among the
reasons. "Of course I am going to keep on throwing myself into the sea
until I get there," said Roger García Ordaz, who has attempted to flee
Cuba 11 times. "Or if the sea wants to take my life, so be it." 

Thanks for reading, 

Dan

 

DONATE
<[link removed]>

 

**Follow Us**

 

[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]

National Immigration Forum

10 G Street NE, Suite 500

Washington, DC 20002

www.immigrationforum.org <[link removed]>

 

Unsubscribe from The Forum Daily
<[link removed]>

or opt-out from all Forum emails.
<[link removed]>

 

 
_________________

Sent to [email protected]

Unsubscribe:
[link removed]

National Immigration Forum, 10 G St NE, Suite 500, Washington, D.C. 20002, United States