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: 

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.