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