Late yesterday, a federal judge in Texas temporarily paused adjudications through the Biden administration’s new "Keeping Families Together" program, reports Valerie Gonzalez of the Associated Press.
U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker placed an administrative stay on the program for at least 14 days after 16 Republican-led states brought a legal challenge. The administration can continue to accept applications but cannot approve them, as Miriam Jordan, Hamed Aleaziz and Serge F. Kovaleski report in The New York Times.
"The lawsuit is a devastating setback for a program that would have a tremendously positive impact on Texas’ families, communities, economy and workforce," Zaira Garcia of FWD.us writes in a Dallas Morning News op-ed.
Earlier in the day, a group of families who would be eligible — six undocumented immigrants and their U.S. citizen spouses — filed a motion seeking to help preserve the program, reports David Noriega of NBC News.
"I’ve been waiting for over a decade for a program like this," said Foday Turay, who was brought to the U.S. as a child. "Living in a country where you’ve been paying taxes for years, and yet you have to face the constant fear of being torn from your family and your community — when is that fear going to stop?"
As a reminder, the program covers immigrants who already are eligible for legal status and eventual citizenship. Without it, "the process could include a years-long wait outside of the U.S.," as Gonzalez notes. Read our full explainer.
Welcome to Tuesday’s edition of The Forum Daily. I’m Dan Gordon, the Forum’s VP of strategic communications, and the great Forum Daily team also includes Jillian Clark, Joanna Taylor, Ally Villarreal and Clara Villatoro. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected].
MISCONCEPTIONS — Former President Trump’s conflation of asylum seekers with mental health patients "is a trope many decades in the making," historian Mauricio Castro writes for Time. Castro points to 1980s narratives about the Mariel boatlift that painted new immigrants — who mostly have had a positive impact on the U.S. — as "undesirables." Similarly, while visiting the Arizona-Mexico border, Trump made several false claims about migrants and crime rates, reports Emily Bregel of the Arizona Daily Star.
CROSSINGS — The Biden administration’s asylum restrictions are lowering border encounters, but at a cost, reports Hamed Aleaziz of The New York Times. Since June, the number of people asking for asylum in the U.S. has dropped by 50%, according to new data. Advocates are warning that the restrictions are blocking some people who have valid asylum claims. Meanwhile, Texas’ Operation Lone Star restrictions have not appeared to stem crossings relative to other states, reports Benjamin Wermund of the Houston Chronicle.
ARREST — Authorities have charged Guatemalan Rigoberto Román Miranda Orozco in connection with the 2022 death of 53 migrants in an abandoned tractor-trailer in Texas, Sonia Pérez D. and Jim Vertuno of the Associated Press report. The Justice Department is seeking Miranda Orozco’s extradition. He is charged with "six counts of migrant smuggling resulting in death or serious injury in the deadliest human smuggling attempt across the U.S.-Mexico border," Pérez D. and Vertuno write.
SHELTER RESTRICTIONS — In Quincy, Massachusetts, about 50 Haitian migrants were forced to sleep outside Monday amid shelter restrictions, reports Peter Blandino of The Patriot Ledger. Half of the group were children. While the Boston Immigrant Justice Accompaniment Network has kept many off the streets, limited funds stopped them from being able to assist this time. "It's insane, inhumane policy," network organizer Judy Wolberg said of the state government’s lack of response.
P.S. In Cleveland, a youth-centered organization is helping former refugee children feel more comfortable in their transition to a new place, reports Najee Hall of Signal Cleveland.
