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 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. "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. 

"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 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]. 

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. "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 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. 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’s Abigail Hauslohner chronicles Army veteran Matt Zeller’s drive across the U.S. to try to draw attention to the Afghan Adjustment Act, which would help us keep our promises to our allies. (You can still take take action here.) 

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. 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, 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. 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. 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 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