We hope you enjoyed the weekend, whether because or in spite of the history unfolding before our eyes.
As part of the Biden administration’s most recent asylum restrictions, Border Patrol agents are no longer asking whether migrants fear being returned to their country of origin. Migrants have to say so proactively or else they will be deported, reports Elliot Spagat of the Associated Press.
Immigration advocates refer to this as the "shout test." Officials believe it is a crucial change to reduce the number of asylum seekers, who are less likely to bring up fear unprompted.
Although the administration says it is following international law [which includes the right to apply for asylum], advocates have concerns. The Center for Gender & Refugee Studies reviewed the "shout test" when it was applied in 2020, during the pandemic. In its analysis, 51 of 97 families interviewed said Border Patrol agents didn’t respond to fears they expressed verbally. Another 21 said their nonverbal cues were ignored.
In recent weeks, Mexican migrant Christian Gutierrez sought asylum but was deported. "They completely ignored me," he said. "They didn’t give me an opportunity."
Meanwhile, the number of unauthorized border crossings into the U.S. has continued to dip, bringing the U.S. closer to the threshold that would call for lifting the latest restrictions at least for a time, reports Camilo Montoya-Galvez of CBS News.
July is expected to be the fifth consecutive month of declines. But even if the "deactivation number" of an average of 1,500 unauthorized crossings over seven days came to pass, a partial asylum ban could be kept in place, Montoya-Galvez notes.
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, 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].
ABBOTT’S BUSES — A team at The New York Times is the latest to analyze the effects of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) busing of migrants from the Texas-Mexico border to big cities around the United States. Migrants, their destination cities and the national conversation around immigration all have experienced the impacts. "For every five migrants who had immigration court hearings scheduled in New York, Chicago or Denver over the last two years ... one migrant traveled to those cities on a state-funded bus from Texas," the team reports.
NETWORK — Vast networks of friends and families are helping Chinese migrants find their way in the U.S., reports Chao Deng of The Wall Street Journal, with photos by Bing Guan. Such networks help "[m]any Chinese migrants find jobs and housing more easily than arrivals from Latin America," Chao reports.
SCRAMBLE — Migrants in the Boston area who have only temporary protections are doing what they can to gain the certainty of legal status ahead of the November election, Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio reports in the Boston Globe. But their options are limited by immigration court backlogs, too few lawyers and the continued tightening of policies, she reports.
CIVIC ENGAGEMENT — As the state director of Poder Latinx in Arizona, Nancy Herrera helps the state’s Latino community become more civically engaged, improving their lives and communities, reports Erick Trevino of the Arizona Republic. Having come to the United States as an undocumented immigrant at age 3, Herrera knows what it’s like to live with uncertainty and fear. Now a U.S. citizen, she uses her story to encourage others to work toward citizenship and become active members of their communities.
P.S. The extension and expansion of Temporary Protected Status for Somalis already in the U.S., announced Friday, will make about 4,300 people newly eligible, reports Andrew Kreighbaum of Bloomberg Law.
