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The U.S. resettled 6,844 refugees in June. This was the fourth consecutive month with similar numbers of resettlements, encouraging progress that hasn't been seen in years. "It’s certainly a very positive sign that the refugee program is on the road to recovery. But the pipeline of ready to travel refugees must be maintained or monthly arrival numbers could decline," said Forum’s policy expert Dan Kosten. The efforts must continue, since we are still far from an ideal goal of resettlements. During the nine months of fiscal year 2023, the U.S. has resettled 38,653 refugees out of the ceiling President Biden set at 125,000. If the current trend is sustained, the U.S. could reach half of the resettlements set in the Presidential ceiling. Separately, Welcome Corp, a private refugee sponsorship through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), announced yesterday a new targeted education sponsorship initiative that will offer refugees a new path to American colleges, reports Eric Hoover of The Chronicle of Higher Education. Welcome Corps on Campus will allow a minimum of five people over the age of 18 to form a sponsorship group. The group members must have a connection to a participating college in the program and live in the community. Welcome to Friday’s edition of The Forum Daily. I’m Clara Villatoro, the Forum’s strategic communications manager, and the great Forum Daily team also includes Karime Puga, 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]. HARSH CONDITIONS — Tens of thousands of people are waiting in Mexican border towns to get asylum appointments under harsh sanitary conditions at migrant camps, reports an investigative team of Reuters. To illustrate the situation, in Matamoros the population of a camp exceeds 5,000 people. In addition, nearly 3,000 migrants are dispersed in shelters, hotels, abandoned houses, and an out-of-service gas station, according to local officials. Reuters zooms in on some stories that show a hard reality in the Mexican side of the border. RESTRICTIONS — Florida published a list of out-of-state licenses that are no longer valid in the state in accordance with the hardline immigration law implemented by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), reports Kaycee Sloan for WFLA. Driver licenses from Delaware, Connecticut, Hawaii, Rhode Island and Vermont that have been issued to undocumented migrants are invalid in Florida since July 1. The list of invalid out-of-state licenses will go through periodic updates, Sloan notes. VENEZUELAN IMMIGRANTS — The arrivals of Venezuelans have more than doubled since 2021, immigration advocates are calling for President Biden to redesignate Venezuela's Temporary Protected Status to offer protections to a large group of them while they were for the resolution of their asylum cases, reports Fisayo Okare for Documented. "TPS is not the cure to everything. But it is an extra safety mechanism to deal with the many people who are here," said Deborah Lee of Legal Aid Society. VOLUNTEERS AWARDED — The Afghan Resettlement Project, a committee of volunteers from the Rotary Club of Fulton, received the Community Excellence Award at the Missouri State Capitol for their efforts in helping Afghan families, reports Andrea Merritt of the Fulton Sun. The program provides housing, support, and integration into the community. More local welcome:
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