A Texas state house committee approved a $1.5 billion proposal that would allow Gov. Greg Abbott to continue building barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border, reports Uriel J. García of The Texas Tribune. The money would be on top of the $1.5 billion or more the state already has designated to build about 40 miles of barriers.  

"I think building more walls is just going to be wasting taxpayer money, and then they don’t work," said David Stout, an El Paso County commissioner. "If it did work, then we wouldn’t be seeing the large number of migrants coming across." 

Experts agree that walls "do not block unwanted [migrant] flows," in the words of Élisabeth Vallet of the Migration Policy Institute, and can serve to reroute migrants to other, often more dangerous paths. 

Meanwhile, for people requesting asylum without initially crossing into the U.S. unauthorized, frustration with the CBP One app has grown, reports José Ignacio Castañeda Perez of the Arizona Republic. Appointments are limited, and migrants often must wait months for one.  

Colombian migrant Julio Cesar Lerma Ceballos decided to cross after waiting two and a half months. "I wanted to enter through there, turn myself in, tell them that I was tired of waiting for an appointment," Ceballos said. He was turned away. 

The wait can seem like "a kind of migration purgatory," reports Julie Turkewitz of The New York Times. Some migrants now question their decision to follow the Biden administration’s guidance.  

Welcome to Tuesday’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, Clara Villatoro and Katie Lutz. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected]. 

ALLEGED MISTREATMENT — Military veteran David Dillard was hired to accompany migrants sent from Texas on buses. He says he witnessed "disgusting and inhuman" conditions onboard, report Nicco Quinones, Ashley Schwartz-Lavares and Allie Weintraub of ABC News. "This job, from Day One, was never meant to be done the right way," Dillard said. " … These people deserve not to be pawns." 

FAITH — In an editor’s note for Christianity Today, Kelli B. Trujillo reflects on the complex nature of the humanitarian crisis at the border while examining the enduring hope and faith that connect us. "It’s not a simple matter, and politicized, polarizing sound bites don’t even come close to doing it justice," Trujillo writes. Referencing pieces by Sophia Lee, Trujillo sees promise in the continued power of storytelling to humanize migrants at the border. 

COMMUNITY — Churches in Fort Worth, Texas, are coming together to support Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, reports Marissa Greene of the Fort Worth Report. In September a district court judge ruled DACA unlawful for a second time, keeping recipients’ future in jeopardy. The Rev. Fernando Rojas says he would like to see bipartisan reforms so these young adults have a legal path forward. "The right thing to do is to give them an opportunity to be full participants of the American life, of the American way," Rojas said.   

SPONSORS’ STORIES — Nearly 250,000 people have resettled in the United States through the Biden administration’s parole program since October 2022. Jessica Bakeman, Wilkine Brutus and Helen Acevedo share American sponsors’ perspective in their piece for WLRN’s "Waiting for America" series. Sponsors Catalina Garcia and Paulette Francois share their stories of trying to get family members to the United States safely. 

Thanks for reading, 

Dan