THE FORUM DAILY
A migration analyst says migrant apprehension policies in Mexico that have reduced the number of migrants seeking to cross the U.S.-Mexico border work in the short term but are not sustainable, reports Pablo De La Rosa of Texas Public Radio.
According to Mexican government data, almost 360,000 migrant apprehensions took place within the first few months of 2024 in the northern region of Mexico.
The current measures are a sort of "revolving door" for migrants within Mexico because the country can move people south en masse but not otherwise process them via detention or removal, says Ariel Ruiz Soto of the Migration Policy Institute. "Mexico doesn't have the resources," he said.
Meanwhile, eyes are on Panama’s President-elect, José Raúl Mulino, after he said he would shut down the Darién Gap, the major migration route between Colombia and Panama, reports Alma Solís of the Associated Press.
After his victory last week, Mulino said, "Panama and our Darién are not a transit route. It is our border." Around 147,000 migrants have already entered Panama through the Darién Gap this year, Solís notes.
While experts agree that shutting down the pathway could have major effects on the movement of migrants in the region, they also warn that such an undertaking would require cooperation and resources the Panamanian government might not have.
Welcome to Tuesday’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, Ally Villarreal and Clara Villatoro. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected].
DREAMERS — As politics surrounding immigration and the border stay divisive, being a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient has become more and more perilous while legal limbo persists, Linda Chavez, our senior fellow, writes for The xxxxxx. With legislative solutions idle and large-scale deportations possible under a future administration, Chavez writes, "The
time to legalize their status is long overdue, but it has become even more imperative ...."
MISINFORMATION, PART 1 — Flyers encouraging migrants to vote have been a vehicle to spread misinformation about what nonprofits are telling migrants, reports Jude Joffe-Block of NPR. Although it quickly became clear the flyers were falsified and not seen by many (if any) migrants, right-wing politicians and organizations such as the Heritage Foundation used the incident to spread misinformation about noncitizens voting,
Joffe-Block notes.
MISINFORMATION, PART 2 — Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) continues arguing that undocumented immigrants vote in federal elections, report Rebecca Beitsch and Rafael Bernal of The Hill. He’s not alone — although it’s already illegal and data show it to be "exceedingly rare," some Republicans are making it a talking point by introducing legislation or state ballot measures, report Colby Itkowitz, Patrick Marley and Clara Ence Morse of The Washington Post. For more on the facts,
check out our new resource.
GOSPEL — St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Brooklyn, New York, is working to help thousands of new migrants who have made the trek from their home countries to the United States in search of safety and a better life, reports Peter Feuerherd of the National Catholic Reporter. "It's not about politics for us. It's about living the Gospel," said Father Dwayne Davis, a pastor at St. Thomas Aquinas. In Texas, Elia
Cárdenas writes in Global Sisters Report of her own experience in the Migrant Shelters' Ministry.
|
