Family units represent 40% of migrants who have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border this year. Per a Department of Homeland Security memo and the Times' reporting, the administration will keep families detained in Border Patrol custody while they undergo initial protection screenings and return them to their home countries "within days" under the actions.

Because the policy exempts unaccompanied minors, advocates say some families could choose to separate and send children to the border alone. Family detention at the border also raises serious concerns. 

Separately, the Biden administration is considering protecting undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens from deportation, the Times' Aleaziz, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Jazmine Ulloa report. 

Parole in place for such spouses would also enable them to work temporarily. "Any such program could also provide some spouses an easier route to obtain U.S. citizenship," the trio reports. 

For families with mixed immigration statuses, the specter of mass deportations under a different presidential administration is generating anxiety, Syra Ortiz Blanes and Max Greenwood of the Miami Herald report.  

Bertha Sanles’ family has been in the U.S. for two decades and her daughters are citizens, but they are considering whether to move to Sanles’ native Nicaragua should Donald Trump win in November. 

"I try to do everything correctly and avoid trouble," Sanles said. "I try to contribute everything I can. Because I consider that this is my home." 

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

FLIGHTS — Differences in the availability of deportation flights to various countries are affecting who gets detained and deported quickly under the Biden administration's new executive actions, reports Elliot Spagat of the Associated Press. Border officials were told to prioritize detaining those migrants who, in Spagat’s words, "can be easily deported," followed by those "hard to remove" and then "very hard to remove." The latter comprises migrants from countries that don’t accept flights from the U.S., Spagat reports. 

WOULD-BE SOLUTIONS — Without congressional action, the U.S. will not see any real solutions for immigration, Houston Chronicle columnist Chris Tomlinson writes. Politicians are using the issue as a political chess piece despite Americans’ continuing desire for solutions, he writes. Despite a set of "obvious" solutions, Tomlinson says, "we’re getting nothing but political hot air. Too many voters are allowing the outrage machines to rile them up." 

EDUCATION — As school districts around the country respond to migrant arrivals, the reality doesn’t match some of the rhetoric, including from some members of Congress, Libby Stanford of Education Week writes. Stanford adds context to remarks that members of the House Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education Subcommittee made last week.  

CINCINNATI — Many migrants coming to the U.S. from the small African nation of Mauritania are making their way to Cincinnati, reports Tim Craig of The Washington Post. Migration from Mauritania to the U.S. overall rose 2,800 percent from 2022 to 2023 as "poverty, corruption and racial tensions" drove many to flee. Although the volume of new arrivals has challenged the city, Cincinnati has a welcoming reputation, Craig notes. Don’t miss the personal stories. 

Thanks for reading,  

Dan