The Forum Daily | Wednesday August 16, 2023
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THE FORUM DAILY

Lots of southern border news to update today. 

First, a federal survey has found that the floating barrier Texas
installed in the Rio Grande under the direction of Gov. Greg Abbott is
mostly in Mexico, Camilo Montoya-Galvez of CBS News
<[link removed]>
reports. 

Elsewhere, CBP has confirmed the deaths last month of two migrants who
were found in medical distress amid scorching temperatures, reports
Fernie Ortiz of Border Report
<[link removed]>.
Separately, nonprofits in Matamoros, Mexico, are working to relocate a
camp of more than 1,000 migrants to a hospital being renovated to house
them, Sandra Sanchez reports, also in Border Report
<[link removed]>.
The camp had no running water and little food. 

In El Paso, some migrants are sleeping on the streets as the city
receives migrants from other border sectors, shelters reach capacity and
some migrants reach a time limit for shelter stays, Cindy Ramirez of El
Paso Matters
<[link removed]>
writes. "We don't want to be here on the streets any more than you
want us here," said a 23-year-old woman. "We're just looking for work,
for an opportunity that we didn't have in our country."  

Evangelical women and the bishop of El Paso are among those pushing back
on the harsh treatment of migrants arriving in the state under Operation
Lone Star. Nearly 800 people have signed an open letter
<[link removed]> urging Abbott to
remember Jesus' call "to see every person as a whole human made in
the image and likeness of God." 

"The border measures that we are seeing in Texas go against Christian
values that [Texas] has proudly protected in the past," We Welcome
<[link removed]> Director Tess Clarke said in a
statement
<[link removed]>.
" ... We need policies that uphold human dignity and support the
interests of the American people."  

Welcome to Wednesday'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]
<mailto:[email protected]>.   

DACA UNCERTAINTY - Ongoing court challenges to Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals have left 22,000 eligible migrants in Arizona without
legal protection as their applications languish, reports Shelly Garzon
of Cronkite News
<[link removed]>.
People such as college student Maria Benitez are unable to access
professional licenses and face employment hurdles. "You have to work
extra hard just to level up with everyone else," she said. "It's kind
of just like waiting for a little miracle to help you get what you
want." 

**FLORIDA LAWSUIT** - Immigration activists are hurrying toward
another try to temporarily halt a part of Florida's new immigration
law that criminalizes the transportation of undocumented migrants into
the state, reports Syra Ortiz Blanes of the Miami Herald
<[link removed]>.
"Our plaintiffs show the profound human impact of who this law affects,"
said Evelyn Wiese, attorney at Americans for Immigrant Justice. "We have
families that are now afraid to travel together back into Florida." 

AFGHAN ALLIES - Jen Kirby of Vox
<[link removed]>
takes an in-depth look at both the progress and the holdups for tens of
thousands of Afghan allies who await congressional action to cement
their futures here. "It's not only a humanitarian issue, which it
certainly is, but it's a matter of national security," said our
President and CEO, Jennie Murray. Separately, Joseph Stepansky of Al
Jazeera
<[link removed]>
reports that many Afghan allies who supported American forces are still
trapped in Pakistan, waiting for a visa that could allow them to travel
to the U.S. 

ACCOMPANIMENT - "In the world of asylum seekers, everything that
happens to them is based on the discretion of others. That often means
at the whim of authority," Pauline Hovey in a personal essay for the
National Catholic Reporter
<[link removed]>.
But a friendly hand makes a difference. Hovey describes her journey
accompanying an asylum seeker in the process of being released from a
detention center and welcoming her to her home, "a grace beyond
description."  

Thanks for reading, 

Dan 

 

 

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