First off, a tip of the hat to Republicans and Democrats who saved the immigration conversation for another day and worked together to keep the government open. As we suggested Friday, now they should heed Americans’ call that they work together on border security and immigration solutions.

We do need them. September’s apprehensions of undocumented migrants between ports of entry were the highest since December, reports Camilo Montoya-Galvez of CBS News. Unpublished stats from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) show nearly 210,000 apprehensions last month, up from 181,000 in August.

"[T]here is no long-term solution to the challenges we are seeing at our border that does not involve the U.S. Congress modernizing our hopelessly outdated immigration and asylum system," DHS said in a statement to CBS.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration is planning a first: $10 million in aid to assist another country’s deportation efforts, reports Stef W. Kight of Axios. If finalized, a six-month pilot program would help Panama deport migrants who do not qualify for protections and who are on their way to the U.S.

And yet: "Unauthorized immigration, for all the obstacles America throws at it, remains a boon for countless U.S. employers and a reasonable bet for migrants who seek a better life," Marcela Valdes writes in The New York Times. Key sentence: "Legal immigration today is close to impossible for most people."

Imagine if we created select, orderly legal paths.

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

REFUGEE CAP — Faith-based refugee resettlement organizations have cautiously welcomed President Biden’s decision to maintain the annual refugee ceiling at 125,000 while adjusting quotas to accommodate more refugees from the Western Hemisphere, reports Jack Jenkins of Religion News Service. As Jennie wrote Friday on LinkedIn, "The progress in recent months should allow us to evaluate how to keep reducing the backlog of pending cases. Lawmakers must continue reinvigorating and resourcing the resettlement infrastructure." This week we’ll be watching for the final fiscal year 2023 resettlement number.

CLERGY — A shift in the processing of green card applications is putting the legal status of thousands of foreign-born clergy members at risk, reports Giovanna Dell’Orto of the Associated Press. The State Department’s recent decision to merge applications for abused or neglected minors from Central America into the same queue as religious workers has created substantial delays, and temporary visas may expire. "We have done everything correctly, [and] from here onward we believe that God will work a miracle," said the Rev. Gustavo Castillo of Columbia Heights, Minnesota. "We don’t have any other option."

LEGAL PATHWAYS — Roberto Velasco, Mexico’s top diplomat for North American affairs, says that the recent increase in migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border will continue until the U.S. creates other legal pathways and tackles the underlying causes of migration, reports Alfredo Corchado of The Dallas Morning News. "You need more legal temporary pathways to depressurize the situation on our borders," Velasco said. "And you need more foreign investments to help alleviate poverty."

BENEFICIAL — Business leaders’ need for foreign-born workers to tackle labor shortages has the attention of Amy Pope, the new director general of the International Organization for Migration, reports Jamey Keaten of the Associated Press. "[T]hey are desperate for migration in order to meet their own labor market needs and in order to continue to fuel innovation within their own companies," Pope said. " … Migration, on the whole, is a benefit."

Thanks for reading,

Dan