The Forum Daily | Thursday, December 21, 2023
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THE FORUM DAILY

Faith leaders are among those raising objections to Texas' new
immigration laws, reports Kate Scanlon of OSV News
.
Dylan Corbett, executive director of the Hope Border Institute in El
Paso, calls the bill "inhumane, immoral, and unconstitutional."  

"The day it goes into effect, it will disastrously make every Texan less
safe by eroding fundamental community trust with law enforcement,"
Corbett says. 

Meanwhile, Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso (and a Forum board member)
writes of his own struggle with turning anger into action in the face of
so much uncertainty and danger for the communities he serves. In his El
Paso Times

op-ed, Seitz writes that by holding up migrants' humanity, he believes
we can find humane solutions. 

"My hope is that our Christmas and holiday celebrations this year will
be occasions to turn compassion, grief and anger into responsibility and
action, to build a world worthy of a God who so treasures the vulnerable
that he became one of them," he writes.  

As Myah Ward , Lauren Egan
 And Benjamin Johansen
of Politico

add context on the continuation of Senate negotiations into the new
year, Marisa Limón Garza, executive director at Las Americas Immigrant
Advocacy Center, writes in The Messenger

that Congress should change its focus: "Welcome - unlike all the
deterrence, harsh and inhumane treatment, closing of legal pathways and
growing criminal penalties - is the only thing that we've seen
actually works." 

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, Clara Villatoro and
Darika Verdugo. If you have a story to share from your own community,
please send it to me at [email protected]. 
 

**NORTHBOUND** - For many migrants making the journey through the
Darién Gap, "an enormous digital almanac" of social media posts is
offering guidance and encouragement, reports Julie Turkewitz of The New
York Times
.
The posts can be a boon to host platforms, but smugglers also are using
them to target migrants, Turkewitz notes. "There's no doubt that the
U.S. government can sometimes not move as quickly as some of the bad
actors that we've seen working online," said Blas Nuñez-Neto, DHS
assistant secretary for border and immigration policy. A team at CNN

has more on the increase in migration facilitated by illegitimate travel
agencies and organized transport networks. 

**MEDICAL DEPORTATION** -Philadelphia is the first city to ban the
practice of medical deportation, or removal of someone in a health care
setting without their consent, reports Vicky Diaz-Camacho for WHYY
.
"This bill will get people the opportunity to have information about
their loved ones' health care needs, in their own language, and make
sure that they are able to decide if they want their loved one to
receive care here in the United States or in another country," said
Adrianna Torres-Garcia of the Free Migration Project
. 

**DEMOGRAPHIC SHIFT** - An increasing number of middle-class Chinese
migrants are trying to reach the U.S. in search of a better life, Shawn
Donnan of Bloomberg

reports. And more migrants from Asia, as well as from Africa, are
arriving at the Arizona border, reports Addie Offereins of World

magazine. "The change that we've seen in terms of the makeup of the
nationalities coming to the border ... in many ways just reflects the
dysfunction of our system," said Laurence Benenson, the Forum's VP of
Policy and Advocacy.  

**JOY** - In Denver, 1,500 migrant children will enjoy presents for
the holidays thanks to a community donation effort, reports Shannon
Ogden for ABC7 Denver
.
Families gathered in the lobby of a hotel-turned-shelter so that their
children could choose two toys apiece. Bret Walker of the City of Denver
said of the efforts, "They've been through a lot. They've traveled. We
wanted to just bring some joy to their life and get them a toy." 

Thanks for reading,  

Dan 

 

 

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