Well, that was fast.  

First, Republican senators said yesterday they would not vote to advance the bipartisan-negotiated bill combining border, asylum and immigration changes with aid for Ukraine and other allies, as Allison Pecorin and Noah Minnie of ABC News reported. Then, the House voted no on whether to impeach DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas (more on this later).  

A vote on the bill is still on the schedule for today, and if it fails, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) says he will move to a vote on the foreign aid part of the package only, Frank Thorp V, Julie Tsirkin and Summer Concepcion of NBC News report.  

As Jennie said yesterday, the border and immigration pieces "must be a beginning, not an end."  

"Although it has its shortcomings, the bill represents a promising effort from Republicans and Democrats to work together on serious border and immigration challenges," she said.  

Should the full bill fail, perhaps negotiators’ hard work can serve as a foundation for a future conversation on something even better. In that spirit, have a look at our summary of the bill and, in Bloomberg Government, Ellen M. Gilmer’s report on concerns about whether the deterrence and enforcement pieces would have been effective.  

Also for the reading list:  

Welcome to Wednesday’s edition of The Forum Daily. I’m Dan Gordon, the Forum’s strategic communications VP, and the great Forum Daily team also includes Isabella Miller, Jillian Clark, Ally Villarreal and Clara Villatoro. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected]. 

IMPEACHMENT VOTE — By the slimmest of margins and with some Republicans voting no, the House did not impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas yesterday, Rebecca Beitsch reports in The Hill. Another vote is likely when House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana), who is undergoing cancer treatment, returns. An impeachment "would divert attention and resources away from actual progress, and would do nothing to secure the border, ensure the humane treatment of migrants, or reduce processing backlogs," the Council on National Security and Immigration reiterated in a statement yesterday.  

RESETTLEMENT NUMBERS — The newly released refugee resettlement report shows that around 9,200 refugees were resettled in the U.S. in January. That’s a significant increase and a level not seen since October 2016, as our colleague Dan Kosten points out, and it’s good news for a process that is extremely well-vetted and orderly. A new poll by PBS NewsHour and Marist National Poll shows that 57% of voters believe that welcoming others is essential to the fabric of the nation. Even so, support has decreased, Laura Santhanam of PBS NewsHour reports. 

SOLITARY — A Harvard University and Physicians for Human Rights analysis of federal records shows the U.S. government used solitary confinement on detained immigrants more than 14,000 times in five years, reports Emily Baumgaertner of The New York Times. Moreover, the average length of such confinement was "almost twice the 15-day threshold that the United Nations has said may constitute torture," she reports. 

EXPLOITING MIGRATION — Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez has threatened to halt migrant repatriation flights and re-evaluate bilateral cooperation if the U.S. reinstates sanctions, Arturo McFields lays out in an op-ed for The Hill. The situation in Venezuela influences U.S. border migration trends, with historical instances showing that migration can be wielded to support dictatorships, McFields writes. 

Thanks for reading,  

Dan 

P.S. Agencies in Nebraska are anticipating resettling more refugees this year, Kassidy Arena of Nebraska Public Media reports. "Whether it is cultural or financial or in any other community way, [refugees] really have added a tremendous benefit for us and in Nebraska," said Matt Martin of Lutheran Family Services. "And we’re just happy that Nebraska has been such a welcoming place for so many people."