The Forum Daily | Wednesday, January 28, 2026.[link removed]

A new data analysis shows that immigration street arrests quadrupled during the first nine months of the Trump administration, confirming a drastic increase in interior immigration enforcement, reports Suzanne Gamboa of NBC News [link removed]. 

The study was published by the Deportation Data Project at UC Berkeley, a group of academics and lawyers. The analysis also includes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) transfers of people from criminal custody to ICE custody. 

"For both transfers and street arrests, the Trump administration’s decision to stop prioritizing arrests based on factors such as criminal convictions (or to prioritize less) resulted in another well-known trend: the huge increase in the number of arrests of noncitizens not convicted of any crime," the report [link removed] reads. 

Priscilla Rice of KERA [link removed] reports on part of how the increase is playing out in Dallas. 

In Minnesota, "Border Czar" Tom Homan arrived as part of potential steps toward reducing tensions, reports Nick Halter of Axios [link removed]. Those tensions are still running high, as a USA Today [link removed] team reports. 

Separately, some ICE veterans "have concerns about the qualifications and aptitude of [new recruits], especially those with little or no previous law-enforcement experience," Nick Miroff of The Atlantic [link removed] reports.  

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, Nicci Mattey, Malaika Onyia, Luisa Sinisterra 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]. 

**CHILDREN’S RIGHTS **— A federal judge in Texas blocked the government from deporting 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, who were detained last week in Minnesota, reports Camilo Montoya-Galvez of CBS News [link removed]. Liam has become the face of the reality that many immigrant children are detained, report Jesús Jank Curbelo and Nicholas Dale Leal of El País [link removed]. And independent, U.N.-appointed human rights experts are raising concerns about violations of children’s rights during U.S. immigration procedures, UN News [link removed] writes. 

**POPULATION DECLINE** — Restrictions on immigration combined with declining birth rates have led to the worst population growth rates in the U.S. since the pandemic, report Jeff Adelson and Sabrina Tavernise of The New York Times [link removed]. Net immigration numbers are projected to hit a record low of 321,000 this year. As the Forum has analyzed [link removed] before, immigration is key for the U.S. to maintain our demographic health and reach our full economic potential. 

**CHURCH SUPPORT** — Marina Lopez, originally from Guatemala, and her family received strong support from their church community in Chicago during the seven months she was in ICE detention, reports Laura Rodríguez Presa of the Chicago Tribune [link removed]. "An arrest doesn’t affect just one person," said Jose Verduzco, the church choir director. "It ripples through a whole community." The support from faith communities has become key across the country, Hunter Walker analyzes in Talking Points Memo [link removed]. 

More on community impacts: 

* In Maine, a kindergartner was left without her mother, her only caretaker, after the mom was arrested on the street. (Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio, Boston Globe [link removed]) 

* Also in Maine, two sheriffs are speaking up after a corrections officer and a separate recruit were detained by ICE. (Shawn P. Sullivan, Seacoast Online [link removed]) 

* The Spokane, Washington, school district is supporting students and families and encouraging unity in the face of immigration enforcement. (Emmalee Appel, KREM2 [link removed]) 

**DIFFERENT APPROACH **— Amid harsh immigration policies around the globe, Spain announced yesterday that it will grant legal status to up to half a million immigrants living and working in the country without authorization, reports Renata Brito of the Associated Press [link removed]. Spanish Minister of Migration Elma Saiz said during the announcement, "[The government is] dignifying and recognizing people who are already in our country."  

Thanks for reading, 

Dan 

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