The announcement comes ahead of an anticipated increase in migrants at the U.S. border once Title 42 restrictions are lifted May 11, and with the U.S. now "looking at the Darien Gap as the natural choke point to stop extracontinental migration." Nearly 90,000 migrants have traveled through the jungle in 2023 alone. 

In a joint statement, the three countries said they’re planning the campaign "(r)ecognizing our shared interest and responsibility to prevent the risk to human life, disrupt transnational criminal organizations, and preserve the vital rainforest." 

The statement points to strategies such as "new lawful and flexible pathways" as alternative ways to migrate, as well as investing in job creation and poverty reduction in Colombian and Panamanian border communities.  

As we’ve said before, addressing root causes of migration is vital to any sustainable solutions at the border. Working with local communities to address "push factors" — as well as creating controlled, legal migration options and reforming our current asylum system — will do far more to stem irregular migration than bans or walls.  

Welcome to Wednesday’s edition of The Forum Daily. I’m Dan Gordon, the Forum’s strategic communications VP, and the great Forum Daily team also includes Clara Villatoro, Joanna Taylor and Katie Lutz. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected].    

IMMIGRATION AND INFLATION — After a sharp, pandemic-driven drop in the number of immigrants coming to the U.S., immigration rates are slowly starting to recover, Savannah Maher reports for Marketplace. The years-long decline was a major factor in continuing severe labor shortages across industries, particularly in service, hospitality and childcare. "A labor market where jobs can be filled more easily because of the inflow of immigrants will generate less inflationary pressures," said Giovanni Peri of the University of California Davis.  

CITIZEN CHILDREN SEPARATED — As many as 1,000 U.S. citizen children were separated from their immigrant parents at the border under the Trump administration’s "zero-tolerance" policy in 2018, The New York Times’ Miriam Jordan writes. "We don’t even know where these parents are today, and whether or not they know where their children are," said Paige Chan of Together and Free, a nonprofit that has been working with the federal task force trying to locate separated families. "The U.S. government is only beginning to account for the number of U.S. citizens put through this unimaginable trauma." 

SAVE GIRLS ACT — Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) introduced the Stopping the Abuse, Victimization and Exploitation of Girls (SAVE Girls) Act on Tuesday, with bipartisan support. Per Liz Brown-Kaiser and Julie Tsirkin at NBC News, the bill would authorize $50 million to combat the trafficking of young women and girls across the U.S., particularly those who were smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border.  

‘RECOGNIZING THE STRANGER’ —  About 4,000 people have participated in a Catholic effort called Recognizing the Stranger "that aims to identify, train and mentor immigrant leaders and to nurture relationships between immigrant and nonimmigrant communities," per Katie Collins Scott of the National Catholic Reporter. "I believe this is exactly what it means for us to be a eucharistic community, going out to the peripheries, seeing the ones who are struggling, moving closer to them, listening to them, accompanying them," said Fr. Tim Luschen of the Oklahoma City Archdiocese.  

Thanks for reading,  

Dan