The Forum Daily | Tuesday, May 20, 2025https://immigrationforum.org/

THE FORUM DAILYThe Supreme Court is allowing the Trump administration to strip legal protections from about 350,000 Venezuelans living and working in the United States while legal challenges proceed. 

Reporters at the Miami Herald cover several facets of the story, including the ruling [link removed] regarding Temporary Protected Status (TPS), its impacts [link removed] on the estimated 175,000 Venezuelans living in South Florida and what deportation to Venezuela could mean [link removed]. 

"Returning Venezuelans would not only face political persecution but would also reenter a country on the brink of collapse — characterized by soaring inflation and unemployment, rampant crime, frequent power outages, water shortages and chronic scarcities of food and medicine," Antonio Maria Delgado notes in the latter. 

The decision comes as congressional Republicans in Florida have started to offer alternatives to enforcement-only immigration policy, arguing for the need to protect migrants’ claims on a "case-by-case basis," reports Rebecca Beitsch of The Hill [link removed].  

Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Florida) is a co-sponsor of a bill introduced last week that would extend TPS for Venezuelans, Beitsch reports. It would "ensure law-abiding Venezuelans currently in the United States can stay here until conditions improve and they are not forcibly returned to a brutal dictatorship," Salazar said. 

More broadly, "We have a constituency to represent," said Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Florida). 

The Herald’s editorial board [link removed] also addressed yesterday’s Supreme Court decision, after one of its members, Isadora Rangel, took a look [link removed] at the bigger immigration picture. 

Welcome to Tuesday’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, 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].   

**SELF-DEPORTATION FLIGHT** — The first "self-deportation" flight left from Houston yesterday with 64 people on board, reports Uriel J. García of The Texas Tribune [link removed]. The flight was a part of an administration initiative offering such a flight for free, plus a $1,000 stipend, to unauthorized immigrants who choose to leave. "Crucially, leaving the country may mean giving up on a very real chance at staying here legally under laws and processes that already exist," said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council.  

**AFGHANS IN IOWA** — As Catholic Charities ends its 50-year resettlement program, Afghans in Iowa are facing new challenges, reports F. Amanda Tugade of the Des Moines Register [link removed]. Without rental assistance from the program, several newly arrived families are now facing eviction. Meanwhile, as the Trump administration ends protections for Afghans in the United States, many are feeling betrayed by a country they once assisted, report Emma Batha and Orooj Hakimi of Context [link removed]. 

**STRANDED** — The Trump administration is reinstating the records of thousands of international students, but the consequences of the initial revocation are real and lasting, report Makiya Seminera, Annie Ma and Janie Har of the Associated Press [link removed]. One student lost his job and returned to south Asia, where he is now "stranded." An Iowa State University Ph.D. student is relieved to return to school and a teaching-assistant job after a "dark period" but plans to leave this year: "How much should I suffer to continue here?" 

**SUPPORT** — Many employers are asking how they can best support their immigrant employees, reports Nancy Mann Jackson of SHRM Business [link removed]. Emily Foster, our vice president and chief of public affairs, underlines that the goal is not just to hire qualified workers but to retain them. "By providing a workplace culture that meets the unique needs of foreign-born workers, companies can help these employees thrive and build a strong foundation for the future," she said. 

Thanks for reading,  

Dan 

**P.S.** Haitian immigrants in Massachusetts found "space for joy" as they celebrated Haitian Flag Day on Sunday, reports Sean Cotter of The Boston Globe [link removed]. 

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