Forum Daily | Tuesday, July 29, 2025https://immigrationforum.org/

**THE FORUM DAILY**Construction industry experts say immigration enforcement raids are causing delays, driving up costs, and exacerbating skilled labor shortages, reports Tim Reid of Reuters [link removed]. 

A $20 million construction project near Mobile, Alabama, is facing major setbacks after the threat of immigration raids has cut the site’s workforce in half. The situation's cascading effects can increase costs, Reid reports. 

Meanwhile, in Nebraska, Glenn Valley, one of the Midwest's fastest-growing meatpacking companies, has experienced a nearly 70% drop in production after losing most of its workforce, report Eli Saslow and Erin Schaff of The New York Times [link removed]. 

Similarly, in Iowa, “the largest meat processor in the world” has lost around 10% of its workforce just with the revocation of parole for Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela nationals, reports Nina B. Elkadi of Sentient Media [link removed]. 

Farmers across the country are scrambling to harvest crops as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids threaten their operations, Chris Kenning of USA Today [link removed] reports. 

Amid ongoing raids, President Trump has recently noted the importance of farm workers and said his administration is looking into ways it can stabilize the farm workforce, Kenning highlights.  

And that’s what Americans wants, in general, not only for the farm workforce. The Forum’s most recent polling [link removed] shows that a large majority of voters agreed that Congress and the administration should work on creating legal pathways for essential workers, Dreamers, and other individuals with temporary protections. 

As Jennie said in a statement yesterday: “American businesses and immigrant workers deserve meaningful solutions that reflect the vital role of these individuals in our communities and our economy.” 

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, Callie Jacobson, Nicci Mattey 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]. 

**CONSEQUENCES** — Asylum seekers and refugees form the backbone of Ohio’s workforce, writes editor Leila Atassi in her column at Cleveland.com [link removed].  Atassi notes that Ohio immigrants are both employers and members of the workforce, responsible for $53 billion of Ohio’s annual economic output. The consequences of cutting humanitarian entrants off from life-sustaining benefits “will land squarely on the shoulders of local communities” Atassi emphasizes. 

**MISSING CLASSMATES** — Teenagers and children have been caught up in recent ICE raids, leaving empty seats in classrooms across the country, reports Kayla Jimenez of USA Today [link removed]. Among them is fourth grader, Martir Garcia Lara, whose “absence rippled beyond the school walls, touching the hearts of neighbors and strangers alike,” said Sara Myers the school district’s spokesperson. Separately, 20 states filed a lawsuit over a new multi-department policy that includes barring undocumented children from Head Start, a federally funded preschool program, reports Auditi Guha of the VTDigger. [link removed] 

**RIGHTS VIOLATED** — Civil rights lawyers say that detainees at the Florida Everglades detention center are being held without charges and are seeing their hearings cancelled, reports Mike Schneider of the Associated Press [link removed]. A lawsuit has been filed against the center over these allegations, with one attorney calling the situation an emergency. Meanwhile, Stephany Matat of the Tallahassee Democrat [link removed] reports that Catholic leaders are speaking out against violations of religious freedom at the center. 

**JUDGES SPEAK OUT** — After recent layoffs, many federal immigration judges are taking legal action and speaking out, reports Sophia Tareen of the Associated Press [link removed]. “The Department of Justice that I joined in 2016 is not the same one now,” said Jennifer Peyton, a former supervising judge. Since January, 106 judges have departed through firings, resignations, retirements, and transfers, according to their union, worsening immigration backlogs. 

Thanks for reading, 

Clara

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