DEL RIO — Along the U.S.-Mexico border, aid organizations and government officials are working to manage a rise in the number of families crossing the border, The Wall Street Journal's Alicia A. Caldwell reports. The Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition in Del Rio, Texas, typically assists around 25 migrants a week — in the last week of January 341  passed through, "quickly overtaxing the organization’s resources and leaving it nearly out of supplies, said its director of operations, Tiffany Burrow." In addition, U.S. Customs and Border Protection "recently opened a 160,000-square-foot tent complex along the border in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley to process and house the growing number of new migrants." Some migrants shared that they are entering the U.S. "in anticipation of less harsh treatment under the Biden administration,"  Caldwell adds. 

ON THE MOVE AGAIN — In 2020, a shelter in southern Mexico known as "The 72" hosted 3,000 migrants. In just the first six weeks of 2021 that number is already at 1,500, Isabel Mateos and María Verza report for the Associated Press.  Reasons for the recent surge vary: Hope in the new Biden administration, borders reopening, two major hurricanes in November havocking Central America, and "desperation deepened by the economic impact of the pandemic." Mexico "has so far said it will continue enforcing an ‘orderly’ migration, which in practice has meant trying to contain migrants in the south since Trump threatened tariffs on all Mexican imports in 2019. ... authorities had made 50 raids on freight train lines since Jan. 25 in southern and central Mexico, detaining nearly 1,200 migrants." 

THE JOY — After fleeing gang threats in Honduras — and being kidnapped for ransom in Mexico while waiting for asylum — a father and son have finally been allowed to enter the U.S., reports Miriam Jordan of The New York Times. José and his 4-year-old boy, Santiago, waited almost two years under Trump's Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), a.k.a. the "Remain in Mexico" policy, to cross the border. José, among the first to be admitted to the U.S. under the Biden administration’s rolling back of the policy, told the Times: "We just entered. Thank God, we made it. I don’t have words to express the joy that I feel now, to be able to join my family."  

GOOD AND BAD — Stuart Anderson unpacks "the good and the bad" of the Biden administration-backed immigration bill introduced yesterday in a column for Forbes, focusing on the impacts for companies and employment-based immigrants. The good: The bill’s employment-based green card reforms "may allow America to retain talented people who otherwise might grow so frustrated they decide to leave the United States for Canada or return to their home country." Plus, the bill would end limits to the number of visas allowed for spouses and children of family- and employer-sponsored immigrants. Among the downsides? "The bill would allow the secretaries of Homeland Security and Labor to ‘temporarily limit’ employment-based immigrants from entering the U.S.," a provision Anderson warns is "ripe for abuse." For a broader look at the bill, Reuters has a summary of the overall toplines. 

AMERICAN ATTITUDES — In a new report released 
Thursday by the American Immigration Council’s Center for Inclusion and Belonging, authors Nichole Argo, Ph.D., and Kate Jassin, Ph.D., assess what immigration issues Americans hold most sacred — and why that matters. Their findings stem from a nationwide survey of 1,370 U.S. citizens last March assessing their stances on 14 main issues prominent in the national immigration debate. Their conclusion? "People with sacred, opposing stances can work to discover core underlying values that both sides hold in common — and those values or perspectives can then be affirmed. If this common ground is found, a new dialogue can begin."