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In South Texas, Brooks County Sheriff’s Deputy Don White says many migrants, directed by smugglers, take risky, days-long routes to avoid a Border Patrol checkpoint in Falfurrias, about 80 miles north of the Rio Grande. Often they lack sufficient food and water for the trip. In the El Paso border sector alone, migrant deaths have surged by 188% in 2023 even with migrant encounters dropping, Jennifer Cuevas of KFOX14 reports. To the west, the 42 migrant deaths in the Arizona desert in July was a 10-year high, reports Adrienne Washington of Cronkite News. "We’re dealing with more extreme heat conditions in border regions," said Christian Penichet-Paul, Assistant Vice President of Policy and Advocacy here at the Forum. "And then we’re also dealing with policy — an absence of options that to allow people to migrate to the U.S. in safer and more orderly conditions." At the same time, smugglers are leading migrants from more distant countries, including Pakistan, China, Mauritania and others, through that desert. Anita Snow of the Associated Press reports that in July, the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector "became the busiest sector along the U.S-Mexico border for the first time since 2008." 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 Jillian Clark, Ashling Lee and Darika Verdugo. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected]. ‘POLITICAL STUNT’ — Texas’ "floating border wall," consisting of giant orange buoys in the Rio Grande, has failed to deter migrants, Santiago Pérez and Michelle Hackman of The Wall Street Journal report. The initiative, part of the state’s Operation Lone Star, has faced legal and environmental challenges — and crossings at more dangerous points have increased. "It’s a waste of money and far from effective," said Tom Schmerber, a Border Patrol veteran. "I see it as a political stunt." 12th BUS — A 12th bus from Texas filled with migrants arrived in Los Angeles on Monday, five days after the Los Angeles City Council unanimously decided to investigate potential legal action against Texas and Gov. Greg Abbott, reports Jon Healey of the Los Angeles Times. A lawsuit would home in on the first such bus, on which 42 migrants arrived June 14 and which Councilman Hugo Soto-Martínez called a "23-hour bus ride with little or no food or water," as Julia Wick reported last week in the Times. COURT CONGESTION — The U.S. Immigration court system has become "emblematic of an immigration system that is overwhelmed and understaffed," reports Alicia A. Caldwell for The Wall Street Journal. Recent government data show more than 2 million open immigration cases in the U.S. "I’ve been here for many years. I work, and I pay taxes. I just want a resolution," said Albino Cuellar Razo, who works legally in Nebraska while his 10-year-old case remains pending. INDUSTRY CHALLENGES — Will there be enough workers to pick Florida’s winter crops that help feed the rest of the country? With the state’s tough new immigration law having taken effect July 1, time will tell — but there are widespread concerns, as Syra Ortiz Blanes reports in the Miami Herald. More than 85% of Miami-Dade County’s agricultural laborers are foreign-born, Ortiz Blanes notes. Thanks for reading,
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