The Forum Daily | Friday, February 21, 2025https://immigrationforum.org/

**THE FORUM DAILY**

Doris Arape says her son Mayfreed Durán-Arape, 21, is being detained at Guantánamo Bay despite never having hurt anyone, reports Adrian Carrasquillo for The xxxxxx [link removed]. 

She has been unable to reach him since his move to the base. "If you know anything about my son, please tell me," she wrote via WhatsApp. 

Arape’s family is not alone, as Perla Trevizo and Mica Rosenberg of ProPublica [link removed] and The Texas Tribune [link removed]; Laura Romero and James Hill of ABC News [link removed]; and Silvia Foster-Frau, Ana Vanessa Herrero and María Luisa Paúl of The Washington Post [link removed] make clear. 

Officials have been scrambling to expand capacity at Guantánamo, Priscilla Alvarez and Haley Britzky of CNN [link removed] report. And military doctors are preparing to be deployed there, reports Ximena Bustillo of NPR [link removed]. 

Elsewhere, 97 of the deportees the U.S. government sent to Panama are being transferred to a camp in the country’s Darién province, reports Juan Zamorano of the Associated Press [link removed]. Most are from countries to which the U.S. cannot send deportation flights directly, and migrants themselves have refused to return.  

The Panamanian government says those at the camp will remain until they can be sent to another country willing to take them. 

And children will make up about half of the migrants on a deportation flight to Costa Rica comprising migrants from countries including China, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan, Ronny Rojas of Noticias Telemundo [link removed] and Kimmy Yam of NBC News [link removed] report. 

Deep breath. One of our coping mechanisms right now is the National Zoo’s Giant Panda Cam [link removed], in case this is helpful for you, too. 

Welcome to Thursday’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, Soledad Gassó Parker, Broc Murphy, Clara Villatoro and Becka Wall. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected] mailto:[email protected]. 

**RAPID RESPONSE** — A Tucson, Arizona, mother and her two children were deported to Mexico just a few hours after she was pulled over for driving under the speed limit, reports John Washington of Arizona Luminaria [link removed]. Now their Tucson church is raising money to help. Meanwhile, in York, Pennsylvania, advocates are trying to assemble a rapid response team to help immigrant families affected by unexpected deportations, reports Mike Argento with the York Daily Record [link removed].  

**CONCERNS AND A LAWSUIT** — The evangelical community is feeling direct effects of the president’s immigration enforcement actions, reports Patricia Caro of El País [link removed]. And the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is suing the administration over the funding freeze for refugee resettlement programs, reports Peter Smith of the Associated Press [link removed]. "The conference suddenly finds itself unable to sustain its work to care for the thousands of refugees who were welcomed into our country and assigned to the care of the USCCB by the government after being granted legal status," said Archbishop Timothy Broglio, USCCB president.  

**PUBLIC HEALTH** — The Trump administration is expected to make a public health order that would designate migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border as health risks, reports Priscilla Alvarez of CNN [link removed]. Such a measure would resemble Trump's 2020 invocation of Title 42 [link removed] as the coronavirus pandemic began, Alvarez notes. Meanwhile, the administration is planning a $200 million border ad campaign, Shelby Talcott of Semafor [link removed] reports. 

**TACOS** — Texas taquerias are uniting to start a Taco Passport, a physical booklet that individuals can use at participating restaurants for 10% of their purchases to be donated to immigrant-focused nonprofits, reports José R. Ralat of Texas Monthly [link removed]. "Latino immigrants, whatever their status, are the backbone of the service industry," said Miguel Cobos, co-owner of Austin’s Vaquero Taquero and one of the innovators behind the passport.  

Thanks for reading,  

Dan 

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