The Forum Daily | Tuesday, April 15, 2025https://immigrationforum.org/

**THE FORUM DAILY**Key industries such as hospitality, agriculture, construction and retail may face significant setbacks - and consumers may see higher prices - as immigrant workers face fear and uncertainty under increased deportations, reports Erica Pandey of Axios [link removed]. 

According to an estimate from the Pew Research Center [link removed]., there are over 8 million undocumented people in the U.S. workforce. Pandey notes that the informal economy also extends to some visa-holding immigrants who face restrictions on their participation in the formal economy. 

As communities face heightened enforcement, some immigrants are choosing to skip work, depriving businesses of their workforce and families of their income. 

Though the Trump administration has employed highly publicized immigration enforcement tactics, the actual number of people it has deported remains stagnant, writes Julia Ainsley of NBC News [link removed]. 

The administration has ramped up pressure on immigrants to "self-deport." The federal government has turned to strategies including imposing fines on those with removal orders and launching a multimillion-dollar ad campaign urging immigrants to leave, Ainsley highlights. 

Separately, Sens. Lisa Murkowsi (R-Alaska) and Jon Ossoff (D-Georgia) signed a letter [link removed] rebuking the White House’s actions to end the program assisting unaccompanied minors with legal representation in immigration court, reports Ximena Bustillo of NPR [link removed]. 

In their letter to the Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the senators wrote that the administration’s policy, "puts children directly at risk of trafficking and exploitation, and harms any hope of a fair legal process for thousands of vulnerable children."  

Welcome to Tuesday’s edition of The Forum Daily. I’m Clara Villatoro, the Forum’s assistant VP of strategic communications, and the great Forum Daily team also includes Jillian Clark, Dan Gordon, Soledad Gassó Parker and Broc Murphy. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected] mailto:[email protected].

**BUKELE SAYS NO** — Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said yesterday during a meeting at the White House that he will not send back Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man who was mistakenly deported by the United States, reports April Rubin of Axios [link removed]. Bukele’s statement comes after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the administration to "facilitate" the man’s return, Rubin notes. Separately, the Trump administration is facing a lawsuit that seeks to stop deportations of migrants in Colorado under the Alien Enemies Act, report Shane Croucher and Billal Rahman of Newsweek [link removed]. 

**CHANGES ON CAMPUS** — The police departments of three public universities in Florida are planning to allow their officers to conduct immigration enforcement on campus, reports Kate Payne of the Associated Press [link removed]. This shift regarding campus police and their role would come amid the increase in student visa revocations. Meanwhile, Pauleen Le and Anthony Bettin of CBS Minnesota [link removed] report that universities in 19 states are suing the Trump administration over revoked student visas. 

**WORSHIP** — A federal judge ruled against a group of interfaith plaintiffs seeking to block immigration enforcement in houses of worship, reports the Episcopal News Service [link removed]. In California, Elizabeth Sanchez of CBS 8 [link removed] reports that hundreds of faith leaders and advocates held a prayer service and walked to protest the administration’s policies. Janet Castanos, a faith-based supporter at the event, emphasized that churches should be safe place but "it's not happening in our churches if ICE is able to come in and separate families." 

**AT STAKE** — Amy Yurkanin of ProPublica [link removed] zooms in on the struggle of nonprofits such as the Nashville International Center for Empowerment (NICE) to keep their support for refugees afloat. Facing stop-work orders and funding cuts, NICE increasingly relies on volunteers from local churches, who are now scrambling with more work and fewer resources. "I’m very much worried," said Abdul Makembe, one of the volunteers. "I mean, [refugees] have no idea of what to do." 

Thanks for reading,  

Clara 

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