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. 

"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]. 

'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. "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. A CBP statement updated yesterday 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. Meanwhile, recipients such as Mario Hernández, who has a master’s degree in business, will remain in limbo, as Andrea Herrera of KRDO 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 reported Thursday that the hotel said the story was false, and Lana Bellamy, Phillip Pantuso, and Brendan J. Lyons of the Times Union reported that the nonprofit leader recruited vets to participate. Now the state attorney general’s office is investigating. 

Thanks for reading, 

Dan