The Biden administration’s placements of unaccompanied migrant children with high-risk sponsors when numbers were high in 2021 gets a closer look from Jack Gillum and Michelle Hackman of The Wall Street Journal. 

In some cases, officials ignored caseworkers’ concerns in favor of placing children quickly and avoiding images of kids in overcrowded detention centers, Gillum and Hackman report. 

The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General released a report earlier this year about these safety concerns. As Jennie said at the time, "Protecting children must remain paramount" — for both the administration and Congress.   

Right now, summer’s heat is putting migrants of all ages at risk, Alia Shoaib of Newsweek reports. "Far too many people who made the decision to place their lives into the hands of [smugglers] have died of dehydration, and heat stroke," said Justin De La Torre, CBP’s Tucson Sector Deputy Chief Patrol Agent. 

Elsewhere in border-related news, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) continues building a border wall that, at the current pace, ultimately would cost taxpayers $20 billion, reports Jasper Scherer of The Texas Tribune. And in Panama, under new President José Raúl Mulino, the government is using barbed wire to discourage Darién Gap crossings, report Didi Martinez and Julia Ainsley of NBC News. 

One family’s 5,000-mile journey is the focus of a New York Times piece by Luis Ferré-Sadurní and Juan Arredondo. The videos and photos (and words) are not to be missed. 

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

UTAH COMPACT — In 2011, dozens of Utah leaders signed the Utah Compact, "a declaration of five core principles to ‘guide Utah’s immigration discussion.’" Jacob Hess of the Deseret News revisits the principles, compares them with where the immigration conversation stands today, and finds that they’re still relevant. "In an age of hardening positions nationally, there are good reasons to believe these principles could help encourage [a] broader conversation to move towards a better place," Hess concludes. 

CONTRIBUTIONS — According to a June report by University of Idaho researchers, the state’s undocumented population contributes tens of millions of dollars to the state’s economy and helps industries meet their labor needs, reports Mia Maldonado of the Idaho Capital Sun. "We are dependent on an unauthorized workforce," said Rick Naerebout, Chief Executive Officer of the Idaho Dairymen’s Association. "Who would fill that void if those workers weren’t here... ?" 

PAROLE PRAISE — President Biden’s proposal to grant parole to law-abiding spouses of American citizens "deserves our full support," writes Theodore B. Olson, solicitor general of the United States under President George W. Bush, in a Washington Post op-ed. Such a measure would alleviate significant pressure on mixed-status families, Olson writes, and give spouses more freedom to contribute to our workforce, economy and communities.  

CITIZENSHIP — Communities around the country welcomed our newest American citizens on the Fourth of July, including in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and North Carolina — and at the Field of Dreams in Iowa. (I’m resisting apropos movie references.) Here are a few other patriotic stories: 

Thanks for reading,