The Forum Daily | Thursday, December 07, 2023
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THE FORUM DAILY

More asylum seekers are trying to reach the U.S. by sea - with harmful
effects, including for unaccompanied children and for Coast Guard
officers who intercept them, Seth Freed Wessler writes in an
eye-opening, in-depth piece in The New York Times Magazine
.  

Asylum seekers caught at sea do not have the same right to request
asylum as those encountered on land. Most are sent back to their home
countries, where violence or other desperate conditions often await
them.  

Between summer 2021 and this fall, only five unaccompanied children held
on Coast Guard cutters between the Caribbean and the Straits of Florida
have been allowed into the U.S. That's out of a total number of nearly
500 children.  

And the mental health of Coast Guard officers who must turn back
migrants - and who sometimes find bodies - is suffering. Vice Adm.
Kevin Lunday, who leads the Coast Guard in the eastern half of the U.S.,
wrote to colleagues in February "that two outside experts had told him
their crews were under extreme stress similar to the levels experienced
in 'sustained combat operations.'"  

Another officer, Capt. Chris Cederholm, wrote to colleagues, "I don't
see how the current level of operations is sustainable without the
breaking of several of our people."  

Meanwhile, the Good Faith podcast with Curtis Chang has a new two-part
focus on how to make sense of the realities of migration and the border,
including an emphasis on compassion. The first

features Bri Stensrud of Women of Welcome ,
and the Part 2

guest is former Border Patrol agent and current Sacred Heart Shelter
volunteer Michael Debruhl.  

Welcome to Thursday'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, Isabella Miller and Katie Lutz. If you
have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at
[email protected] .
  

**BACK AT IT** - Senators from both parties are working to pick
negotiations back up on a border and asylum compromise that would pair
with funding for Ukraine and other allies, Burgess Everett of Politico

reports. "This is not the end," said Sen. James Lankford (R-Oklahoma).
"Reset and say: 'Let's keep doing the work.'" 

**IMPROVEMENT** - Numbers of "gotaways," border crosses whom the
Border Patrol does not arrest, are again much lower after the end of
Title 42 than when the policy was in effect, David J. Bier of the CATO
Institute

writes. Title 42 (see our FAQs here
) not only
encouraged repeated attempts to cross, but "also motivated people who
would otherwise turn themselves in for asylum to slip in covertly," Bier
writes. The gotaway rate in October was 59% lower than in April, the
month before Title 42 ended. "Ending Title 42 improved border security
and reduced successful illegal entries," Bier concludes. 

**LONG WAITS** - Migrants say they are waiting up to six days at the
border near the temporarily closed Lukeville port of entry in Arizona,
reports Adriana Loya of 12News
.
CBP's goal is to process people within 36 hours. The Lukeville closure
allowed Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to move personnel to
processing hotspots. For many of the migrants waiting to be processed in
the remote area near Lukeville, food, water and medical assistance are
scarce. 

**SUPPORT** - The San Diego County Board of Supervisors for has
allocated another $3 million to support incoming migrants, Ryan Hill of
KGTV

reports. The investment is aimed at covering essential needs and
services for people whom the Border Patrol has processed. However, for
some, transparency in the expenditure of these funds remains a
concern. 

**LATEST NUMBERS** - The U.S. resettled 7,468 refugees in November
, continuing a strong
start to fiscal year 2024 - though still short of the 10,417 monthly
average that would be necessary to reach the cap of 125,000 refugees for
the year.   

Thanks,  

Dan 

 

 

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