The Biden administration is seeking funds for a new temporary housing program for migrant families, reports Stef W. Kight of Axios.  

The money for new facilities is part of a $40 billion emergency funding request to Congress, which includes nearly $2.7 billion for the Department of Homeland Security's border efforts. The new temporary housing would allow migrant family members to move around freely during the day, but it would be mandatory to check in and stay the night in the facilities, Kight notes.  

Separately, Agence France Presse reports that the families of 40 migrants killed in a detention center fire in Ciudad Juarez back in March will receive more than $8 million each, according to the Mexican government. The National Institute of Migration had asked the Ministry of Finance to provide a "special budget item for the reparation of the damage."  

The tragic fire at a federally operated Mexican detention center was an especially stark example of the need for the U.S. to improve border and immigration processes. Writing in El Paso Matters on Friday, El Paso and Del Rio pastors Larry Floyd and Shon Young  note that evangelical Christians "can help provide a constructive way forward." 

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

STILL IN NEED — The U.S. labor shortage continues, with workforce levels still below pre-pandemic figures, reports Giulia Carbonaro of Newsweek. Sectors including manufacturing, retail and education struggle to find skilled workers, while immigration remains below pre-pandemic levels. "It will take time for the normal flow of migrant workers to return, and the U.S. is still in need of low-wage immigrant labor," said John Blevins, a guest lecturer at Cornell University's SC Johnson College of Business. 

STUDENTS’ CHALLENGES — Florida’s new immigration law is impacting undocumented students in the state, writes Danielle Prieur of WMFE. Salvador Rosas, a Seminole State College student from a mixed-status family, notes increased stress and racial profiling, for example. About 40,000 college students in Florida could be affected. Meanwhile, in The Washington Post, Catherine Rampell writes on how "evidence available so far suggests [the law is] undermining values that conservatives say they care about." 

STUCK IN LIMBO — Afghan evacuees feel stuck in limbo as their asylum applications to be resettled in the U.S. under a special program known as "P2" slowly make progress, reports Charlotte Greenfield of Reuters. She zooms in on the case of a family whom U.S. authorities advised to travel to a third country to get their application processed. Their only option: Pakistan, where 16,000 to 20,000 applicants are waiting. "It's been two years and things have not improved, they should consider our basic need and speed things up, the process is moving very slowly," said family member Khalilzad. Ali M. Latifi has more on evacuees’ challenges in The New Humanitarian.  

‘OPEN WOUND’ — Pope Francis addressed migrant deaths in the Mediterranean on Sunday, urging politicians to focus on what he called an "open wound," reports Valentina Za for Reuters. "I encourage the political and diplomatic forces who are trying to heal this wound in a spirit of solidarity and brotherhood, as well as the efforts of those who work to prevent shipwrecks and rescue migrants," he said. According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 22,000 people have died or gone missing in Mediterranean waters since 2014.  

Thanks for reading, 

Dan