After the end of Title 42 in May, instead of an expected surge of migrants, Mexican cities along the border are seeing empty beds at shelters and spare food at soup kitchens.  

The result comes from a combination of the Biden administration’s efforts and those of the Mexican government to control the stream of migrants at the border with some measures that include transporting them to places deep in the country’s interior.  

To illustrate the lull at the border, in the El Paso sector, one of the busiest, Border Patrol agents saw nearly 2,000 migrant encounters a day in early May, but recently, there were as low as 654 encounters, The New York Times’ team notes.  

However, immigrant advocates and officials worry the situation is temporary.  "As long as the conditions in the countries of origin don’t change, as long as people continue to leave, there is going to come a point where we are going to see the borders saturated again," said Alejandra Macías Delgadillo, director of Asylum Access Mexico. 

Migrant apprehensions have begun to slowly increase along some parts of the border, although still considerably lower than in the spring.   

Welcome to Monday’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, Dan Gordon and Katie Lutz. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected].  

CHANGE IN RHETORIC — The shooter who killed 23 people at a Walmart in El Paso in 2019 was sentenced to 90 consecutive life terms by a federal judge on Friday, reports a team of CNN. The massive shooting is considered one of the deadliest attacks targeting Latinos in modern American history. And it is a tragic example of the dangers of "invasion" rhetoric and the damage caused by those who advance the Great Replacement Theory. We have said it before, this is a rhetoric that should be thwarted in all spaces, especially in the immigration debate. 

NEW PROGRAM — The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Friday new family reunification parole (FRP) processes for nationals of Colombia and some Central American countries, reports Camilo Montoya-Galvez for CBS News. The initiative will allow eligible migrants to obtain parole status if they have relatives who are U.S. citizens or legal residents and have filed visa applications on their behalf. The program is expected to benefit more than 70,000 individuals and is noted as "an alternative to irregular migration to help relieve pressure at the Southwest Border" by the administration. 

HEAT AT THE BORDER — Over 100 migrants have died from heat-related causes along the U.S.-Mexico border this year due to record-breaking heat, writes Frances Vinall for The Washington Post. Authorities warn against dangerous journeys as rising temperatures make crossing even more treacherous. 

FLORIDA INVESTIGATION — California and Texas officials have called on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate Florida for potential violations of federal law while sending asylum seekers to their states, reports Alicia Victoria Lozano for NBC News. In a letter to the DOJ, California Governor Gavin Newsom, Attorney General Rob Bonta, and Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar accused Florida of deceiving migrants with false promises of jobs and shelter. 

Thanks for reading, 

Clara 

P.S. For your list of movies, check out "Fremont," a refugee story set in Northern California. Director Babak Jalali cast real-life Afghan refugee Anaita Wali Zada, a first-time actor, in the lead role of his film, per Will Tizard of Variety.