The Forum Daily | Monday May 22, 2023
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THE FORUM DAILY

Faced with likely persecution and few viable pathways to safety, more
than 3,600 Afghans have trekked across Latin America - including
through the treacherous Darién Gap - since the beginning of 2022,
Julie Turkewitz, Federico Rios and Ruhullah Khapalwak report in The New
York Times
<[link removed]>.
 

They've carried the hope that their dedication to the Western mission
in Afghanistan could mean a warm welcome at the United States'
southern border. Instead, many have been extorted, robbed, kidnapped,
returned to dangerous transit countries, detained, and separated from
their family members. 

"No one cares about us!" screamed Ahmad, a 24-year-old engineer
who tried to apply for a more orderly pathway to the U.S. but never
received a response. "We have important people left in Afghanistan and
no one cares!" 

For our Afghan allies - and for the U.S.'s would-be future allies
- the lesson seems blunt: "They left us behind," said Taiba, a former
government official who had fought for women's rights alongside
Americans. "Sometimes I think maybe God left all Afghans behind." 

Meanwhile, asylum seekers from all over the world who reach the border
become subject to a tangle of new restrictions that are severely
limiting asylum access and eligibility, Jonathan Blitzer reports for The
New Yorker
<[link removed]>. 

"We're now in a period when people don't automatically assume that
the United States will have an asylum system," said Lee Gelernt of the
ACLU. 

Welcome to Monday's edition of The Forum Daily. I'm Dan Gordon, the
Forum's strategic communications VP, and the great Forum Daily team
also includes Alexandra Villarreal, Clara Villatoro and Katie Lutz.
Belated thanks to Becka Wall for her assist on Friday! If you have a
story to share from your own community, please send it to me at
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>. 

'A BUOY' - Foreign-born workers accounted for more than half of the
labor force's gains in 2022, Gabriel T. Rubin and Rosie Ettenheim report
for  The Wall Street Journal
<[link removed]>.
"Any real gains we're seeing in the labor force are coming from
immigrants - they're a buoy," Elizabeth Crofoot, a senior economist
for a labor-market data firm, said. 

**TRAGEDY IN TEXAS** - The mother of an 8-year-old migrant child who
died last week after experiencing a medical emergency at a border
station in Harlingen, Texas, said her requests to call an ambulance for
her ailing daughter were denied, Valerie Gonzalez reports for the
Associated Press
<[link removed]>. A
CBP statement updated yesterday
<[link removed]>
confirms that the mother requested medical aid at least three times on
the day the girl died. "[My daughter] cried and begged for her life and
they ignored her," Mabel Alvarez Benedicks said. "They didn't do
anything for her."  

DACA'S LIMBO - Oral arguments on the legality of the Deferred
Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program are set for June 1,
reports Alisa Reznick of Fronteras Desk
<[link removed]>.
Meanwhile, recipients such as Mario Hernández, who has a master's
degree in business, will remain in limbo, as Andrea Herrera of KRDO
<[link removed]>
reports. "I would love to buy a home and save enough money to do that,
and to really establish myself here," Hernández said. 

FABRICATED STORY - A nonprofit leader said a hotel making room for
migrants forced 20 homeless veterans to check out early. Then local
media started asking questions: Mid Hudson News
<[link removed]>
reported Thursday that the hotel said the story was false, and Lana
Bellamy, Phillip Pantuso, and Brendan J. Lyons of the Times Union
<[link removed]> reported
that the nonprofit leader recruited vets to participate. Now the state
attorney general's office is investigating. 

Thanks for reading, 

Dan 
   

 

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