The Forum Daily | Friday December 15, 2023
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THE FORUM DAILY

More than a thousand families have been separated at the U.S.-Mexico
border near San Diego since September, Andrea Castillo of the Los
Angeles Times

reports. In a letter to DHS, advocacy group Al Otro Lado and other
signatories ask for a broadening of "the definition of a family group
under agency practice and ensure families are released together." 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection's practice of releasing migrants
without coordinating where they'll go next is at the root of these
separations, Castillo reports. 

"The trauma families experience during the periods of separation is
compounded by CBP's lack of communication and the near-total opacity
of their practices," the letter states.  

Elsewhere, don't miss Pope Francis' message to the Global Refugee
Forum in Geneva, as reported by Linda Bordoni of Vatican News
.
Just a sample: "Protecting and saving human lives must remain our utmost
priority. We often forget that behind these numbers [of migrants] there
are human faces, each with their own story and suffering." 

The Pontiff is not alone in urging compassion. Jeff Brumley of Baptist
News Global

reports on evangelical groups' letter

to Congress this week in which they urge lawmakers to take to heart both
"ensuring secure borders and respecting the God-given dignity of each
person" amid the current negotiations on Capitol Hill. 

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

TO BE CONTINUED - The Senate will delay its holiday break until next
week to continue negotiations on foreign aid and changes to border and
asylum policies, report Makini Brice and Ted Hesson of Reuters
.
The PBS NewsHour

team adds context - including the Forum's perspective. And Andrew
Prokop of Vox

takes a deeper dive into how the conversation over immigration has
shifted. 

WE ALL BENEFIT - "Immigrants contribute positively to all of [the]
ingredients" that go into job creation, Penn Professor Zeke Hernandez
tells Sabri Ben-Achour of Marketplace
.
Among many nuggets from Hernandez: "[W]hether you look at the unskilled
or the highly skilled sector, the economy needs these immigrants
- and not just needs them, but benefits from them in a
disproportionate sense."  

'NO OPTION BUT TO WAIT' - Afghan asylum seekers at the U.S. border
in Tijuana, Mexico, face significant challenges from a combination of
technical issues and complex political hurdles, contributing to a
prolonged state of uncertainty, report Regan Morris and Leire Ventas of
the BBC . Despite
the temporary safety a Muslim-only shelter provides, keeping hope alive
is a challenge. "I have no option but to wait," an Afghan woman says. 

This week in local welcome: 

* In Chicago, 6-year-old resettled Afghan Mahbuba, who is deaf, embarks
on a transformative journey as she discovers the power of her own voice
through ASL classes. (Elly Fishman, WBEZ Chicago
) 

* In St. Louis, community group Welcome Neighbor STL continues to assist
new arrivals after responding to many arriving Afghans. Nearby in St.
Peters, Missouri, a family member and John Calvin Presbyterian Church
are sponsoring a newly arrived Ukrainian family. (Katharina Eggmann,
KSDK
;
Annie Krall, KSDK
)
 

* In New York City, Hosanna City of Refuge Church is welcoming and
assisting Muslim migrants. (Fiona André, Religion News Service
) 

INSPIRATION - In Forbes
,
Stuart Anderson shares inspiring immigrant stories from 2023. Highlights
include Heman Bekele, an Ethiopian-born teen who won America's Top
Young Scientist award, and Adolfo Molina, an immigrant from the
Dominican Republic who helped a woman who had lost consciousness while
driving, among many others. And speaking of inspiring, check out former
refugees' reflections as gathered by artist Matteo Pericoli in The
Washington Post
. 

Thanks for reading, 

Dan 

P.S. A bit more inspiration: Read about Respond, a nonprofit working at
the border with interpreters for 170-plus languages. Maya Averbuch has
the story in Bloomberg
. 

 

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