Tuesday, January 3
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THE FORUM DAILY

Welcome to our inaugural 2023 edition of The Forum Daily - Happy New
Year! We hope you had joyful holidays. 

It's always tough to catch up after 10 days away, The Forum Daily
included, but we'll do our best today and in the coming days. Let's
start with something positive: Around the country the U.S. continues to
welcome and support immigrants - the holidays were no exception. 

On Christmas Eve, when 140 migrants unexpectedly arrived outside Vice
President Kamala Harris' residence in D.C., volunteers got them to a
church and provided food - and Christmas carols, per Mike Allen of
Axios
<[link removed]>. Elsewhere
in the D.C. area, an "SOS" for food and toys for migrant families
resulted in thousands of responses, Theresa Vargas reported in The
Washington Post
<[link removed]>.
And in Alabama, dozens of immigrant families were able to reunite with
loved ones able to visit from Mexico, reports Mary Scott Hodgin of NPR
News
<[link removed]>.
 

In other key headlines, Title 42, originally a pandemic-era policy meant
to be lifted on Dec. 27, blocking many migrants from seeking asylum, is
still in place. The Supreme Court ruled last week that the program
would continue while the court considers a lawsuit challenging its
legality, Benjamin Wermund and Taylor Goldenstein of the Houston
Chronicle
<[link removed]>
report.  

Edgar H. Clemente and María Verza of the Associated Press
<[link removed]>
have the latest on who's benefiting from the situation (hint: it's
neither Americans nor migrants). José Ignacio Castañeda Perez of the
Arizona Republic
<[link removed]>
has a helpful explainer on Title 42, the border and what happens next.
The Forum also responded to the Supreme Court's ruling
<[link removed]>.
  

At the border itself, the situation remains challenging, as many outlets
have covered: In El Paso, Texas, hundreds of migrants are sleeping in
the streets, as they lack U.S. sponsors and financial means to travel
elsewhere, Rosa Flores and Karol Suarez of CNN
<[link removed]>
report. 

For The New York Times
<[link removed]>,
James Dobbins and Miriam Jordan paint the big picture of the lasting
impact of deterrent-focused policies such as Title 42, and the realities
of finding solutions. 

"There is not a set of policies to deal with growing numbers of people
from other parts of the world," said Andrew Selee, president of the
Migration Policy Institute. "Title 42 has long lost most of its
effectiveness as a deterrence tool." 

Selee also points out that more people are coming from countries Title
42 doesn't cover. But the Biden administration is looking at expanding
the list to cover Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans, Ted
Hesson and Mica Rosenberg report in Reuters
<[link removed]>.
Alfonso Flores Bermúdez and Frances Robles of The New York Times
<[link removed]>
report on the increase in Nicaraguans in particular. Advocates are
concerned about the possible expansion, Sandra Sanchez notes in Border
Report
<[link removed]>. 

We must do better. 

I'm certain we missed compelling stories as we were catching up.
Please send them to us at [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>. I'm Dan Gordon, the
Forum's strategic communications VP, and today's great Forum Daily
team also includes Dynahlee Padilla-Vasquez, Clara Villatoro and Katie
Lutz - with a shout-out to Becka Wall for her suggestions over the
break. 

**2023 GOP AGENDA **- House Republicans' agenda for the first two
weeks of the new Congress includes two immigration and border-related
bills, reports Emily Brooks of The Hill
<[link removed]>.
Meanwhile, Forum VP of Policy and Advocacy Larry Benenson tells
Samantha-Jo Roth of the Washington Examiner
<[link removed]>
about what

**should** be on the agenda: With Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
(DACA) at risk, "there will be a real need and recognition that Congress
will need to act." But a divided Congress means that "[p]rospects for
reform will only grow tougher in the next two years," Michelle Hackman
of The Wall Street Journal
<[link removed]>
reports. Tougher, yes, but let's work on what's urgent and possible.
 

**REMEMBER OUR AFGHAN ALLIES** - Speaking of urgent and possible: the
Afghan Adjustment Act. Congress' failure to pass it last year despite
strong bipartisan support means tens of thousands of resettled Afghan
allies and their families still have only temporary status with an
expiration date as soon as August, reports Farnoush Amiri of the
Associated Press
<[link removed]>.
"We lost everything in Afghanistan" under the Taliban takeover, ally
Mohammad Behzad Hakkak said. "And now, we don't know about our future
here." Meanwhile, for CBN News
<[link removed]>,
Tawnya Brown, Senior Vice President of Global, Refugee, and Immigrant
Services at Bethany Christian Services, calls on churches to continue
welcoming Afghans - and on Congress to act. "It's the church's
role to come alongside the voiceless, the resourceless, and the homeless
without judgment and without agenda," she writes. "We must ask
ourselves, 'How do we care for people who do not see a future in front
of them?'" 

**CUBAN MIGRATION** - Several Cubans who were awaiting deportation
have been released from detention after Immigration and Customs
Enforcement accidentally leaked their confidential data online last
month, reports Syra Ortiz-Blanes of the Miami Herald
<[link removed]>.
"I am super happy. It was a saga to get out of Cuba," said Ronald
Rodriguez Torres, after being released from Broward Transitional Center,
a detention center for migrants in Pompano Beach. He hopes to study and
work so he can work in physical rehabilitation, as he did in Cuba.
"Thanks to this country, that is giving me a fighting chance," he
added. Meanwhile, the arrival of hundreds of migrants forced Dry
Tortugas National Park to close yesterday, Brian Hamacher of NBC Miami
<[link removed]>
reports. 

**FILLING NEEDS** - Immigrants are expected to continue filling gaps
in the workforce in Texas as the economy grows and more businesses
relocate there, reports Arcelia Martin of The Dallas Morning News
<[link removed]>.
This comes against the backdrop of the U.S.'s acute labor shortages,
including the "struggle to fill Texas' nearly 870,000 open jobs
<[link removed]>," Martin notes.
Meanwhile, a new study
<[link removed]>
from the National Bureau of Economic Research shows that 36% of
nation's innovation in the past three decades is thanks to immigrants,
per Augusta Saraiva of Bloomberg
<[link removed]>. Locally,
immigrants are filling bus-driver needs in Winooski, Vermont (Auditi
Guha, VTDigger
<[link removed]>),
a new program in Maine seeks to help immigrant women contribute fully
(Ari Snider, Maine Public
<[link removed]>),
and immigrants are helping one another at Maine's AK Health and Social
Services (Evan Popp, Maine Beacon
<[link removed]>). 

Thanks for reading,  

Dan 

**P.S.** - A Syrian family that once established a chocolate business
in Damascus has now built a chocolate empire in Nova Scotia, Canada, by
the name of Peace by Chocolate, reports Ian Austen of The New York Times
<[link removed]>.
What a treat!  

 

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