The Forum Daily | Tuesday, November 18, 2025https://immigrationforum.org/

**THE FORUM DAILY**

Experts are concerned that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is diverting thousands of federal agents to focus on immigration, reports a team at The New York Times [link removed].

These diversions have taken agents from cases involving sexual crimes against children, human trafficking and terrorism, among other priorities. 

"DHS keeps being pulled further away from its core missions in protecting the homeland," said David Lapan, a former DHS press secretary who served during the first Trump administration. "These distractions could have deadly consequences." 

Andy Rose of CNN [link removed] has a different angle on the agencies involved in immigration enforcement efforts on the ground. Such efforts in North Carolina are expected to expand to the state capital today, Zachery Eanes and Mary Helen Moore report in Axios Raleigh [link removed]. 

Enforcement since the weekend has shaken Charlotte, reports a team at NBC News [link removed]. Businesses have closed out of fear, and U.S. citizens feel compelled to carry their passports as a precaution, the team reports. More than 130 people have been arrested there. 

The vast expansion in immigration arrests and detention comes at a cost, as our policy team lays out in a new resource [link removed]: "Detention funding has increased more than 400% from approximately $3 billion in [fiscal year] 2019 to over $14 billion in [fiscal year] 2025." There’s more — give it a look. 

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 Marcela Aguirre, Masooma Amin, Jillian Clark, Nicci Mattey and Clara Villatoro. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected] mailto:[email protected]. 

**A CHRISTIAN ANSWER** — U.S. Catholic bishops’ recent statement on immigration is in line with the pope’s consistent defense of human dignity, David French writes in his column in The New York Times [link removed]. "Each of the pope’s statements is part of a consistent ethic of life," French writes. " ... To quote Pope Leo, ‘justice, solidarity, and a genuine reverence for life’ ought to be the touchstones of our public engagement." 

**SCHOOLS **— Worth another mention: Foreign-born college student enrollment in the United States is down 17% this fall, report Todd Wallack, Maham Javaid and Susan Svrluga of The Washington Post [link removed]. Meanwhile, immigrant student enrollment is dwindling across the U.S., report Kate Payne, Bianca Vázquez Toness and Gisela Salomon of the Associated Press [link removed]. That includes thousands of Massachusetts students, report Marcela Rodrigues and Christopher Huffaker of The Boston Globe [link removed]. A bright spot: Moms in Chicago are helping school communities affected by enforcement, Reema Amin reports in Chalkbeat [link removed]. 

**NATURALIZED CITIZENS** — Anxieties over immigration enforcement are affecting naturalized U.S. citizens, reports Deepti Hajela of the Associated Press [link removed]. "When I raised my hand and took the oath of allegiance, I did believe that moment the promise that I belonged," said Dauda Sesay, who left Sierra Leone during a civil war and came here. Now Sesay worries that immigration policy shifts will affect his own status as American. 

**RESEARCHER RELEASED** — Tae Heung "Will" Kim, a Texas A&M University doctoral student and green card holder detained at the San Francisco airport in July, has been released, reports Julián Aguilar of the Houston Chronicle [link removed]. Kim is part of a research team developing a vaccine to treat Lyme disease. "We will continue to support [his] return to his studies," NAKASEC, a coalition of Korean community-based organizations, said in a statement. " ... At every step, CBP and ICE ignored Will’s constitutional right to due process." 

Thanks for reading,  

Dan 

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