As of this morning, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has temporarily closed railway crossings in El Paso and Eagle Pass, Texas, to reallocate necessary personnel to assist with migrants, reports Texas Public Radio.

Border authorities reported nearly 3,000 apprehensions in Del Rio, Texas, and around 1,300 migrants in El Paso on Sunday, as Rosa Flores and Sara Weisfeldt of CNN report.

In Arizona, Gov. Katie Hobbs ordered the state’s National Guard to the Mexico border to help federal agents manage the increasing number of migrants crossing into Arizona, reports Stacey Barchenger of the Arizona Republic.

This move comes after CBP closed a remote Arizona border crossing near Lukeville. "Arizona needs resources and manpower to reopen the Lukeville crossing, manage the flow of migrants, and maintain a secure, orderly and humane border," Hobbs said.

The order has received mixed reactions from other Arizona leaders.

Separately, despite the Senate having postponed its winter recess and a weekend filled with negotiations, a deal on border, asylum and aid for Ukraine and other allies is not likely before January, report Burgess Everett and Myah Ward of Politico. For more on the kinds of real people whom the policies under consideration would affect, read Julia Decker, policy director of the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, in the Minnesota Reformer.

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

DISTURBING — Donald Trump’s dangerous rhetoric on immigration continued at campaign stops in New Hampshire and Nevada over the weekend, Kate Sullivan of CNN reports. In New Hampshire, Trump also showed deference to Vladimir Putin of Russia and Viktor Orban of Hungary and called people charged in the Jan. 6 attack "hostages," Isaac Arnsdorf writes in The Washington Post. "[E]xperts, historians and political opponents have voiced growing alarm about Trump’s rhetoric, ideas and emerging plans for a second term, pointing to parallels to past and present authoritarian leaders," Arnsdorf notes.

ECONOMIC GROWTH – International migration will be key to growth in New Hampshire, Phil Sletten of the NH Fiscal Policy Institute writes in the New Hampshire Business Review. "With more than twice as many job openings as unemployed workers in New Hampshire thus far in 2023, employers will need the skills of international migrants ... [t]o keep the state’s economy moving forward," Sletten notes. Separately, the Congressional Budget Office’s report on expected GDP growth this year notes that immigration at higher levels than expected helped mitigate a growth slowdown, as Reuters reports.

ONGOING BATTLE — The Farmworker Association of Florida has challenged a state law criminalizing the transportation of undocumented immigrants, reports Syra Ortiz Blanes of the Miami Herald. The provision, part of a tough law Gov. Ron DeSantis backed and signed earlier this year, is facing scrutiny over potential harm to families with mixed immigration statuses, clergy, and seasonal workers. As Fiona Harrigan writes in Reason, leaders embracing such policies "could very well stifle the force that has powered so much of Florida's success."  

VOICE OF REASON — We’re fans of longtime immigration law and policy expert Charles Foster, whom we honored this fall as a Keeper of the American Dream. That’s not the only reason we recommend his interview with Regina Lankenau of the Houston Chronicle. In it, Foster shares his perspective on U.S. asylum policies — and solutions. Here’s hoping more people listen.

Thanks for reading,

Dan