Another group of migrants was flown to Sacramento on Monday, report Brittany Hope, Hilda Flores and Ashley Zavala of KCRA News. California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta (D), confirmed that about 20 migrants were on a plane that landed in the Sacramento Executive Airport.

The details resemble those on Friday: Migrants from El Paso went first to New Mexico, and their transport could be related to Florida’s migrant transportation program, per Shawn Hubler, Edgar Sandoval and Nicholas Nehamas of the New York Times.

"I don’t know what is their motivation to organize these trips. I don’t know if it’s political or part of the government. They didn’t tell us anything," migrant Wilkendri Rodriguez said in an interview at the Sacramento airport.

Gov. Rob DeSantis (R) of Florida hasn’t commented on these cases. In Texas, representatives for Gov. Greg Abbott (R) have said he hasn’t been involved in the California flights. Bonta’s office is investigating who’s responsible, with criminal or civil action possible.

Separately, the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office in Texas filed criminal charges over Florida’s transport of migrants from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard in September 2022, reports Uriel J. García of The Texas Tribune.

The sheriff’s office did not name any individual suspects and didn’t specify when the investigation was turned over to the Bexar County district attorney. Back in September, DeSantis claimed credit for sending the planes from Texas to Massachusetts, and a woman named Perla Huerta was identified as having approached the migrants.

Welcome to Tuesday’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, Keylla Ortega, Ashling Lee, Christian Blair and Katie Lutz. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected].

STEPPING DOWN — Tae Johnson, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), announced he will step down at the end of the month, Dareh Gregorian of NBC News reports. Johnson’s announcement comes less than a week after U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz publicized his retirement plans. ICE has not had a permanent director since 2017.

INDUSTRY OF IMMIGRANTS — The question, from Aneurin Canham-Clyne of Restaurant Dive: "What are some of the potential political solutions to issues facing restaurants?" The answer, from Sean Kennedy of the National Restaurant Association: "immigration reform. We are the industry of immigrants. … [W]e are not going to get to where we need to be as a country with the immigration policies we have right now."

AFGHAN ALLIES — A new bipartisan Senate bill aims to bolster the visa program for Afghan allies by extending it for five years and nearly doubling the number of available visas, reports Rebecca Kheel of Military.com. The proposed legislation aims to address processing delays and backlogs that arose within the Special Immigration Visa (SIV) program.

REQUEST DENIED — The volleying between the executive and judicial branches continues, limiting how the Biden administration can process people at the border. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday denied a request to stay an order that requires the administration to detain migrants for extended periods rather than process and release them with conditions, as Adam Shaw reports for Fox News.

FAITH PARTNERS — New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) announced a plan to partner with faith-based groups to set up overnight shelter for asylum seekers, reports Janice Yu of ABC News. Upstate in the Times Union, Raga Justin explains the complexity of the asylum system and how backlogs have led to the accumulation of asylum seekers in New York.

Thanks for reading,

Dan