MIAMI - "What's next?" is the question on the minds of thousands of Floridians today after President Obama's announcement Thursday night of an executive order regarding the future of as many as 5 million undocumented immigrants.

As many as 900,000 people living in Florida could be affected, according to the Urban Institute.

While the order delaying deportations isn't a permanent fix, said Cheryl Little, executive director of Americans for Immigrant Justice, it's at least a temporary reprieve.

"Those who are eligible will be able to apply for a work permit," she said. "In Florida, they can get a driver's license and, at least for some time, won't have to worry about whether or not there's going to be that knock on the door."

Obama said he will work with lawmakers on a bipartisan, comprehensive bill of permanent changes for the immigration system. He is being criticized by some who feel this executive order is an abuse of power, with some Republicans in Congress vowing to do what they can to impede the president's action.

Even as advocates for the immigrant community welcomed some progress, they said they're also seeking more permanent answers to keep families together, said Kica Matos, director of immigrant rights and racial justice for the Center for Community Change.

"We will celebrate this victory. We will welcome it with open arms, and so, we will be out of the streets today," she said. "And guess what we're going to do on Monday? We're going to go back to the hard work of continuing to fight for a permanent solution."

Little said she believes the next hurdle for immigration reform will be actually enforcing the protection offered by the president's order.

"My concern," she said, "is that, while this announcement I think is going to be great news to a lot of people, are we going to live to see the day when it's actually able to move forward in a fair and timely manner?"

The Urban Institute estimates that Florida's population of undocumented workers accounts for about 10 percent of the total in the United States. The institute's research is online at urban.org.


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An all-volunteer vaccine clinic run by a farmworkers' union says it's expecting an increase in demand from seasonal migrant workers who want to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.

President of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), Baldemar Velasquez said the mobile clinic has provided shots to thousands in North Carolina's low-income immigrant community.

But he pointed out that migrant workers can be especially vulnerable because they travel, live and work in crowded conditions.

"And now," said Velasquez, "we'll convert over to reaching the migrant population when they start coming in for the planting and cultivating and then finally, the harvesting. And that's when we'll get the mobile clinic out to a couple of the big farms."

According to the Environmental Working Group, North Carolina counties with the highest concentrations of farmworkers also have the highest rates of documented COVID-19 cases.

And Purdue University research shows as of last December, more than one million agricultural workers have tested positive for COVID-19.

Velasquez said he's worried about emerging subvariants and how they might impact nationwide vaccine supplies. He added that clinic volunteers already faced an uphill battle getting the vaccine.

"I know from past experiences that when there's initiatives like that," said Velasquez, "not only in the health departments, but in other federal and state agencies - the migrant workers and the immigrant population are the last ones in line. They're the last ones to be reached."

At the University of Toledo College of Medicine, Clinical Professor of Medicine Dr. Richard Paat heads mobile vaccination clinic efforts. He said his staff, primarily medical students, travels to church and work sites in order to reach people who would otherwise have limited access to vaccines.

"By going there to the sites, we became accessible to the population that did not have access to transportation," said Paat. "And again, working with known leaders like Baldemar and Father Molina, there was an instant acceptance of our teams."

Research shows a high percentage of Hispanic or Latino individuals are willing to be vaccinated, and optimistic about the vaccine's ability to prevent illness, especially among young adults.

As the country reels with the highest levels of inflation seen since the 1980s, experts say without adding more workers, wage increases could drive prices - and inflation - even higher in Ohio and across the U.S.

While many future jobs will be taken by youths aging into the workforce, research suggests many positions will still go unfilled unless the Buckeye State, and the U.S. as a whole, gains more workers by 2030.

Andrew Lim is the director of research for the nonprofit American Immigration Council. Through analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics and other data, his organization found immigration policy in Canada and other countries may be the golden ticket.

"The government, in coordination with the provinces in Canada, say, 'What are the jobs that are most in demand? Where do you need these workers?'" said Lim. "And we don't have that in the U.S. We have an immigration system that largely has not been reformed for now three decades. And so it's really not as responsive as other countries have been able to become."

Of the more than 165 million jobs expected to exist in 2030, almost half will be left open by retirees, career changers, or workers who've left the labor market entirely, according to American Immigration Council findings.

Lim said Ohio mirrors much of what's going on nationally, with the added problem that some of the state's major cities have been shrinking since as far back as the 1970s.

Lim added that while COVID restrictions may be mostly a thing of the past, the pandemic's effects on the economy and worker shortage will remain into the future.

"You have this great resignation where people are really looking for better conditions, but also better wages," said Lim. "And this is putting a lot of pressure on employers because now the competition for workers is really, really tight. And there are limits to what employers are able to do without passing those elevated costs up to consumers."

Lim said unlike other parts of the country, Ohio is dealing with more than the effects of the past two years.

"Even before the pandemic," said Lim, "there was a lot of planning that was being done by chambers of commerce, city councils, by regional associations about how do you make Ohio metros attractive, not just to immigrants but to people in general. And so, a stable population at the very least is really important."

Data shows occupations that grew the most between 2019 and 2021 had a large share of immigrants, including health care, transportation, food preparation, construction, and manufacturing.

Reporting by Ohio News Connection in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.

This Sunday night, immigration and labor groups are marching for May Day on the Vegas strip, speaking out on the need for immigration reform and union jobs.

May Day is traditionally a day to honor workers. Rico Ocampo - immigrant justice organizer with Las Vegas advocacy group Make the Road Nevada - said he wants the feds to lift the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention order based on Title 42.

The order is a Trump-era rule that allowed the border agents to summarily reject people seeking asylum without hearing their case - in the name of protecting the U.S. from COVID.

"Title 42 is not a public health measure," said Ocampo. "And instead it's being used as a ploy to stop immigration at the border."

A federal judge recently temporarily blocked the administration's plan to lift the order.

The groups also are calling on Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

Organizers are expecting about 200 people to gather at 6 p.m. at the Bellagio fountain and march to the Statue of Liberty in front of New York, New York.

Ocampo said the marchers also will call on casino management to re-hire those left jobless by the lockdown.

"We want to ensure that union members who had a job before the pandemic have their job back," said Ocampo. "With that we can truly transform this city into a more inclusive place to live."

People can learn more on the Make the Road Nevada Facebook page.

Other co-sponsors include CHISPA Nevada, Culinary Workers Union Local 226, and the National Domestic Workers Alliance.