Spoiler alert: It’s a lot less than we’d hoped. 

Not included: the combination of solutions for the border, for America’s farmers and ranchers, and for Dreamers that so many Americans wanted before the end of this year. 

Not included yet, though there’s hope: the Afghan Adjustment Act. Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) and Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) are making a last-minute push to add it via an amendment, as Nancy Vu of Politico tweeted. 

There are a few spending items that made the cut, as Ellen M. Gilmer of Bloomberg Government reports: $16.5 billion for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, including $1.6 billion to address increased migrant encounters at the border. A new CBP Shelter and Services grant program would get $800 million that would go to "state and local governments and nonprofits that do humanitarian relief work at the border."  

Separately, as J.P. Lawrence reports in Stars and Stripes, the bill would extend the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa program, as well as provide 4,000 additional visas. And there’s a proposed $2.4 billion to reimburse states’ support for Ukrainian refugees, as Caroline Coudriet of Roll Call tweeted. 

Those are significant, but they’re not the bigger-picture reforms we very much need. Zachary B. Wolf has a good analysis on CNN.com of the current situation, why immigration reforms are stuck, and what needs to happen. 

Welcome to Wednesday’s edition of The Forum Daily. I’m Dan Gordon, the Forum’s strategic communications VP, and today’s great Forum Daily team also includes Dynahlee Padilla-Vasquez, Becka Wall and Katie Lutz. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected]. 

ABOUT OUR AFGHAN ALLIES — We’re not the only ones rooting for the Afghan Adjustment Act to get into the final spending bill. Thirty retired U.S. military leaders sent a letter to Congress Saturday advocating for the measure, as Matt Leach and Megan Myers reported in Fox News. On Monday The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board weighed in. And don’t miss the op-ed in the Dayton Daily News by Susan Marticello, a proud American sponsor of a large family of resettled Afghans. Known as "Mama Susan" to 20 Afghans in the Dayton area, she points to their willingness to go to school, study, apply for jobs and college. "[W]e owe it to them to let them make America their permanent home," she writes.  

BIDEN PITCH — This sounds familiar: The Biden administration is looking at immigration reforms in 2023 as a way "to provide legal status for so-called ‘Dreamers’ and increase the labor supply to help lower inflation," Hans Nichols reports in Axios. As Nichols notes, "finding a legislative compromise that’s acceptable to the GOP-controlled House, as well as the president’s progressive base, will be a massive challenge. [But] Biden officials are willing to try." We know that inflation remains a huge concern for Americans — and, again, that Americans want reforms that could address inflation as well as the border. Let’s hope incoming House leadership is willing to listen. 

ON THE BORDER — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has sent the Texas National Guard to the border to set up barbed wire, a team at The Washington Post reports. "What Texas is doing by preventing people from seeking asylum is patently unlawful and should stop immediately," said Lee Gelernt of the American Civil Liberties Union. Meanwhile, the Biden administration is now seeking to have Title 42 end on Dec. 27, per a tweet from Hamed Aleaziz of the Los Angeles Times. On the ground at the border, the on-again, off-again pending end of Title 42 is causing "confusion and tension," The Guardian reports. That’s making life difficult for the humanitarian organizations trying to respond on the ground. "[T]he majority of the work falls to faith communities to pick up the pieces and deal with the consequences," said Dylan Corbett, director of the Hope Border Institute, which helps migrants in El Paso and Juárez. To the north in Dallas-Fort Worth, faith-based organizations are stepping up, as Dianne Solis reports in the Dallas Morning News.  

IMMIGRANT ENTREPRENEURS — With nearly one 1 in 4 entrepreneurs in Massachusetts being foreign-born, the state’s "policymakers must be doing everything they can to foster immigrant entrepreneurship," writes Marcela García of the Boston Globe. The nonprofit English for New Bostonians got the memo and has been able to offer free or low-cost programs for English as a Second Language, serving over 1,000 immigrants yearly, notes García. To further help immigrant entrepreneurs survive and grow, in 2015 the company launched, English for Immigrant Entrepreneurs, or E4IE classes. "What’s great about these classes is that they end up creating a community of immigrant business owners who help each other," Claudia Green, the nonprofit’s executive director, said. "They share information and tips, and they build confidence together." 

‘WE FEEL AT HOME’ — Thousands of migrants, including many from Venezuela, have been bused from the border to Washington, D.C., this year. They’ve found welcome from volunteers — including fellow migrants, Héctor Alejandro Arzate reports in DCist. This past weekend, volunteers threw a Christmas party where children and their families — about 300 people total — received donated toys and enjoyed traditional Venezuelan foods. "Even though we’re far away from our country, Venezuela, we feel at home," said Arianny Ramirez, who helped prepare pan de jamón and is a recent migrant herself. "With that warmth, that love, the gaitas, the pan de jamón, the hallacas, and everything together. It’s very beautiful." 

Thanks for reading,  

Dan