Strict asylum policies and extreme weather are having troubling effects.
For starters, advocates say the Border Patrol is separating families unnecessarily, Sarah Lapidus reports in the Arizona Republic.
Kino Border Initiative recorded a case in which a man who’d fled Mexico amid threats and extortion was separated from his 13-year-old son for two days, with no information about where the son was, before both were deported to Nogales, Mexico.
From Nogales, Alisa Reznick of KJZZ reports that the administration’s most recent asylum restrictions are causing confusion for those removed from the United States. Mari, a Mexican asylum seeker, said she got no information from the Border Patrol: "They didn’t tell us anything. They just took us out, and said, here you are, cross to your country."
And California volunteers are trying to prevent tragedy as migrants deal with increasingly extreme heat, reports Jasmine Garsd of NPR. They say the weather, combined with new asylum restrictions, is causing a humanitarian crisis.
Meanwhile, a nurse who worked at the Otay Mesa detention center says migrants are being neglected by overworked staff, reports Billal Rahman of Newsweek. Juramay Olivia said that at times, two nurses were charged with caring for 1,500 detainees, and that officials at the private detention company CoreCivic "bullied staff and fired her when she raised concerns."
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, Sam 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].
COSTLY — Governors of more than a dozen states have sent National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border at a cost of millions of dollars to each state, reports Marisa Demarco in a collaboration between States Newsroom and The Texas Tribune. Troops on the border are "doing mission sets that are not directly applicable to their military skill set," Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the U.S. National Guard Bureau, said during a Senate subcommittee hearing last month. "That time, I think, would be better utilized building readiness to deter our adversaries."
THE SOUTH — As immigrant populations in the United States reach the highest level in a century, the South is seeing a particular increase, reports Lauren Villagran of USA Today. The demographic change is leading some politicians to spread more anti-immigrant rhetoric. "Though we’re growing and thriving, progress takes a step backwards when political stunts use immigration — or rather immigrants — as a platform," Grace Resendez McCaffery told the local county commission in Florida as it considered an anti-immigrant resolution.
DEFINING 'REFUGEE’ — Updating and expanding the legal definition of "refugee" would help to update the U.S. immigration system, writes Bill Frelick, refugee and migrant rights director at Human Rights Watch, in a Los Angeles Times op-ed. "By expanding its arbitrary definition of ‘refugee,’ the U.S. could better manage the influx of those seeking protection at the border and make its broader asylum system more efficient and humane," Frelick concludes.
SUPPORT — In the basement of the Metro Baptist Church on West 40th Street in Midtown Manhattan, migrants from more than a dozen countries cook together and help build new connections for those starting over, reports Winnie Hu of The New York Times. Together with photographs by Todd Heisler, Hu offers a look inside the R.O.C.C. — Resources, Opportunities, Connections, Community — which opened a year ago.
