The Forum Daily | Friday, May 23, 2025
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THE FORUM DAILY

A new study shows that without foreign-born students, American colleges and universities would see a drop in enrollment numbers that would be catastrophic to many institutions, reports Jeff Arnold of The Hill.  

The National Foundation for American Policy found that enrollment numbers would drop by 5 million by 2037 if foreign-born students are not welcome at these institutions. 

Then yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced it was revoking Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students, report Michael S. Schmidt and Michael C. Bender of The New York Times.  

This decision would affect a quarter of the school's population. Samuel A. Church, Cam N. Srivastava, and Grace E. Yoon of The Harvard Crimson report on the potential impacts on current international students. 

The move also "could hurt America's economy by reducing the number of startup founders," Dan Primack of Axios notes. This morning Harvard has sued, Yoon and Dhruv T. Patel report in the Crimson

At the elementary and secondary level, some parents are pulling their younger children out of schools because of fears around immigration enforcement, report a team from the Associated Press, The Hechinger Report and AL.com.  

Patsy Montesinos of News Channel 5 Nashville describes the distraction and tension at Metro Nashville Public Schools after nearly 200 immigrants were recently arrested in the area.  

And on the post-graduation front, the nominee for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services director says he plans to end Optional Practical Training, Stuart Anderson writes in Forbes

Welcome to Friday’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]

A CALL TO PROTECT FAMILIES — With the pending end of Temporary Protective Status (TPS), Afghans living and working in Oklahoma are concerned that they will be deported, reports Carla Hinton of The Oklahoman. "My prayer is that our elected officials and other leaders will continue to prioritize protecting these families from the significant danger they have successfully escaped," said the Rev. Eric Costanzo of Tulsa. 

Stories of welcome, hope and advocacy persist: 

  • In Fredericksburg, Virginia, faith-based welcomers speak of how receiving Afghans has changed them — and the threat to their work. (Tiffany Stanley, Los Angeles Times)  

  • After a harrowing journey, the Azizi family is making Chicago home. (Zareen Syed, Chicago Tribune

  • Interviewees including Joseph Azam, board chair of the Afghan-American Foundation, talk about the realities and concerns around TPS ending. (Alexis Madrigal, KQED

ECONOMIC EFFECTS — A Supreme Court decision stripping legal status from 350,000 Venezuelan migrants could be disastrous for the economy, report Lauren Kaori Gurley and Anumita Kaur of The Washington Post. Experts are concerned that the loss of hundreds of thousands of workers could lead to labor shortages, business closures and higher costs. The decision is also causing significant confusion over who in this population can continue working in the United States and for how long.  

MORE COURTHOUSE ARRESTS — Detentions outside courthouses, as immigrants attend scheduled hearings, continue in Dallas and across the country, report Ken Molestina and Lexi Salazar of CBS News Texas. In Mississippi, a father of four was arrested and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at his citizenship hearing, reports Nick Judin of the Mississippi Free Press. Meanwhile, in the Ohio Capital Journal, Marty Schladen picks up on Americans’ support for due process in immigration.  

‘CHAOS’ — Ending birthright citizenship would mean an estimated 255,000 children per year would be born in the United States as noncitizens, report Ramon Padilla and Sara Chernikoff of USA Today. American families would feel the effects too, they note. In an op-ed for The Sun-Sentinel, Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski dissects the ‘chaos’ that would result. 

Thanks for reading,  

Dan 

P.S. A Chicago art museum is featuring self-taught, immigrant artists as it reopens. (Kelley Engelbrecht and Lyndon French, Chicago magazine)