The Department of Justice has threatened to sue Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) over the floating buoy barrier he has deployed in the Rio Grande to block migrants, reports Jeremy Wallace of the Houston Chronicle.  

The department sent Abbott a letter saying the barrier violates a federal law regarding obstructions in waterways. A lawsuit would come amid an investigation of officers reportedly being ordered to push people back into the river and not to give water to asylum-seekers, even amid extreme heat. 

In an interview on Face the Nation, Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) said the buoys and other measures are "not acceptable" but the challenges are broader, as Caitlin Yilek of CBS News reports. 

"I do worry [about] what’s happening at all levels — state, local, federal. What I see is a disconnect. I see distrust. I see Republicans blaming Democrats, Democrats blaming Republicans, and round and round we go with nothing getting accomplished," Gonzales said in the interview. 

He called on Congress to step up in addressing the border crisis: "We can’t just wait on the president to solve things. We can’t wait for governors to try and fix it themselves. Congress has a role to play in this." 

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 Karime Puga, Clara Villatoro, and Ashling Lee. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected]. 

DESANTIS’ STRATEGY — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is taking the wrong tack on immigration in an attempt to secure the GOP presidential nomination, Forum Senior Fellow Linda Chavez writes in Real Clear Politics. Florida's new immigration law is causing severe damage to the state's agriculture and construction industries, with many immigrant workers reportedly leaving, Chavez notes. "Making it more difficult to hire people to do essential jobs tarnishes his [job-creator] credentials," she writes. 

ABUSE IN ICE DETENTION — [Content warning: sexual abuse.] Immigrant women in ICE custody continue to face sexual abuse, Zeba Warsi reports for Futuro Media in collaboration with NPR’s Latino USA. Abuse often occurs in a medical setting when women are most vulnerable, and allegations of abuse have continued despite previous promises of reform, Warsi writes. ICE says it follows the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) but "has reportedly failed to follow its guidelines," she reports. 

MILITARY ENLISTMENT — The recently introduced Enlist Act would help the U.S. military close the gap between recruitment goals and actual enlistment, Svetlana Shkolnikova reports for Stars and Stripes. The bill would allow DACA and Temporary Protected Status recipients, as well as people approved for an immigrant visa, to enlist if they meet other qualifications. 

PIONEER DAY — Today is Pioneer Day in Utah. Our President and CEO, Jennie Murray, remembers her own pioneering ancestor and calls us to remember contemporary pioneers seeking refuge in America today. "The days of religious-based discrimination in our immigration policy is not that far behind us.," she writes in the Deseret News. "But even if the motive is not religious, large groups of migrants face similar hardships today. … Let’s remember the immigration system [pioneers] built and the refuge they found — and let’s help others find a place, too." 

Thanks for reading, 

Dan