The Forum Daily | Wednesday, April 16, 2025https://immigrationforum.org/

**THE FORUM DAILY**
Local churches have become an important source of support for immigrants as the Trump administration’s hostility toward newcomers persists, writes Ko Lyn Cheang of the San Francisco Chronicle [link removed].  

A Ugandan asylum seeker, identified by her initials for fear of deportation, says members of her congregation have watched her children for her and helped her pay rent. "I’ve seen God’s love through people in my church," she said. 

Meanwhile, Kelsey Dallas of the Deseret News [link removed] has more on Friday’s ruling against faith groups challenging the Trump administration’s reversal of longstanding policies protecting houses of worship from immigration enforcement.  

A Pew Research Center poll [link removed] finds that most Americans believe immigration arrests should not be allowed in places of worship, Dallas reports. 

Pastors in the Tampa Bay area say that heightened fear of immigration enforcement has suppressed turnout in their congregations, Fadia Patterson reports for Spectrum Bay News 9 [link removed]. 

Separately, the Trump administration is using sensitive personal data to remove undocumented immigrants from their workplaces, schools and homes, report Rachel Siegel, Hannah Natanson and Laura Meckler in the Washington Post [link removed]. 

At the Department of Housing and Urban Development, officials are working on a rule to ban mixed-status households from public housing. Legal experts say that the use of sensitive information that people have shared for years while paying taxes or applying for housing violates privacy rules that ensure trust in government institutions. 

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

**PAROLE** — A federal judge temporarily has blocked the Trump administration from terminating the humanitarian parole program for people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, reports Hamed Aleaziz of The New York Times [link removed]. With termination, migrants would "be forced to choose between two injurious options: continue following the law and leave the country on their own, or await removal proceedings," the judge wrote. In Colorado, a federal judge ordered that two Venezuelan immigrants not be deported pending their immigration hearing next week, reports Allison Sherry of CPR News [link removed].   

**COURT WATCH** — An attorney for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the wrongfully deported Maryland father now imprisoned in El Salvador, said it might take a judge’s contempt order to encourage the government to facilitate his return, report Devin Dwyer and Laura Romero of ABC News [link removed]. Last night a U.S. district judge said the government must provide details on what steps it is taking to ensure Abrego Garcia’s return, report Steve Thompson and Katie Mettler of The Washington Post [link removed].  

**LEGAL FOOTING** — Immigration attorneys say international students fighting immigration crackdowns are on solid legal ground, reports Andrew Kreighbaum of Bloomberg Law [link removed]. Dozens of lawsuits have been filed and more are expected, as Billal Rahman of Newsweek [link removed] reports. Additionally, Hannah Allam of ProPublica [link removed] dives deep into the case of Tufts University Ph.D. student Rümeysa Öztürk. 

**DAY IN A LIFE** — Sergio Martínez-Beltrán of NPR [link removed] began following Yasmelin Valezquez’s journey about 10 months ago and offers a window into her life as she pursues her asylum claim. Elsewhere, José Ignacio Castañeda Perez of Spotlight Delaware [link removed] reports on the experiences of individuals who face immigration court without a lawyer in Delaware. 

For more stories about the people affected by the policies: 

* A University of Florida student with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) shares his concern over the school’s recent agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (Lizbeth Gutierrez, Spectrum Bay News 9 [link removed]) 

* A Vermont high school is organizing a private graduation ceremony for two students preparing to self-deport after losing humanitarian parole protections. (Billal Rahman, Newsweek [link removed]) 

* A father shares his anxieties over the fate of his son, one of the many Venezuelan migrants deported to a high-security prison in El Salvador. (Paz Radovic, Documented [link removed]) 

Thanks for reading,  

Dan 

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