The Forum Daily, formerly Noorani's Notes
 ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

 

THE FORUM DAILY

 

To our readers: We'd love your feedback on The Forum Daily (formerly
Noorani's Notes) via this survey
, which will be open through April
22. Thank you! 

Border officials processed almost 10,000 Ukrainian refugees in the past
two months, according to internal DHS data, reports Camilo
Montoya-Galvez of CBS News
. 

From February 1 through April 6, CBP reported encountering 9,926
Ukrainians who needed legal documentation to enter the country. Most
have attempted to enter via official ports of entry. 

"The fact that Ukrainians are traveling to Mexico and trying their luck
at the U.S.-Mexico border as the fastest option just shows how slow and
clogged up our immigration system is," said Julia Gelatt, a Migration
Policy Institute analyst. "We don't really have a rapid response part
of our immigration system that can create pathways for people in an
emergency situation." 

Speaking of a backlogged refugee and visa system, Ted Hesson
and Kristina Cooke of Reuters

explain why the U.S. resettled only 12 Ukrainians via the official
refugee resettlement program in March. 

Meanwhile, the Forum field team's Joel Tooley, a pastor at Melbourne
First Church of the Nazarene in Florida, shares his experience helping
Ukrainians at the Poland-Ukrainian border with Katie LaGrone of The E.W.
Scripps Company
:
"The greater resolve I left with was a greater determination to look at
the solutions we need to make in our own country for people who are
trying to cross our borders because their stories are not that
different."  

Welcome to Tuesday's edition of The Forum Daily, formerly
Noorani's Notes. I'm Dan Gordon, VP of Strategic Communications,
filling in for Ali today. If you have a story to share from your own
community, please send it to me at [email protected]
. And if you know others who'd
like to receive this newsletter, please spread the word. They can
subscribe here.  

**PENDING LIFT** - With the pending Title 42 lift around the corner,
the Biden administration is preparing for an increase of asylum
seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border, reports Austin Denean of The
National Desk
. Meanwhile,
the Texas Border Coalition (TBC) points to the bigger picture on lifting
Title 42 in a letter to the administration, per Dayna Reyes of the Rio
Grande Guardian
.
Using "Title 42 to expel adult migrants entering the U.S. via the Mexico
border was always a Band-Aid and not a solution," said Cameron County
Judge and TBC Chairman Eddie Treviño, Jr. The plan to rescind the
policy "creates an opportunity for Congress to finally address the
fundamental issues and legislate a solution built on the pillars of
modernizing immigration and strengthening security." (Don't miss the
Forum's new explainer

on Title 42 and what comes next.) 

MORE AT THE BORDER - Two months after a makeshift camp in Tijuana shut
down, police officers and Mexican soldiers further displaced migrants
into dangerous neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city, reports
Gustavo Solis of KPBS
.
Officials cited safety concerns when closing the camp, but Pedro Rios,
director of the U.S./Mexico Border Program for American Friends Service
Committee, said: "the alternative is to, in effect, disappear them into
the general populace of Tijuana and make them susceptible to unknown
greater dangers because no one knows what is happening to them now."
Meanwhile, Mexican truckers blocked traffic along the Pharr-Reynosa
International Bridge Monday "in protest of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's
decision to have state troopers inspect northbound commercial vehicles
- historically a job done by the federal government," report Mitchell
Ferman, James Barragán, and Uriel J. García of The Texas Tribune
.
 

'WE ARE AT WAR' - In one year, an estimated 20,000 people have
been displaced in Mexico's Michoacán state thanks to cartels
battling for territory, Mary Beth Sheridan reports in The Washington
Post
.
In the words of Alma Griselda Valencia, a Michoacán congresswoman, "We
are at war." Sheridan reports that it's not a traditional conflict:
"At stake are not just drug routes, but timber, minerals, and fruit
plantations. In many cases, the armed groups have ties to local
governments, business groups and the police." Many displaced people have
gone elsewhere in Mexico, but the number of Mexicans arriving at the
U.S.-Mexico border has increased.  

**SPONSOR CIRCLE** - Among the ways Americans are welcoming Afghan
refugees is through the Sponsor Circle Program, as Cathryn J. Prince
writes in The Christian Science Monitor
. Sponsor
circles are made up of at least five adults within the community,
helping raise money for Afghans in need of essential items, and offering
friendship and moral support along the way. "I hope this opportunity to
welcome Afghans is something that can embed this value of welcome in
communities and states across the country in a much more profound way
than currently exists," Sasha Chanoff of RefugePoint. "The idea for the
program is that it expands to helping other refugee populations." 

Today in local welcome: 

* Scott Pearhill, a deacon with Holy Spirit Catholic Community, has been
teaching Afghan refugees resettled in Pocatello, Idaho, how to drive in
his own car twice a week. (John O'Connell, Idaho State Journal
) 

* Dr. Greg Yarbrough, an Afghanistan veteran in Northeast Mississippi,
has connected with the FBI and immigration officials to help his former
interpreter Daud escape from the Taliban. (Ray Van Dusen, Monroe Journal
)  

* The Children's Hospital & Medical Center's Injury Prevention Team
in Omaha, Nebraska, recently donated 100 car and booster seats to the
Refugee Empowerment Center for Afghan families. (Isabella Basco, KMTV
) 

LIVED EXPERIENCE - The new director of Oregon's Office of Immigrant
and Refugee Advancement is Toc Soneoulay-Gillespie, a former refugee
from Laos who is looking forward to helping new arrivals to the state.
As Alex Baumhardt reports in the Oregon Capital Chronicle
,
Soneoulay-Gillespie was appointed last month to lead the new office. "We
already have a refugee program, but so many state agencies are very
siloed and fragmented," she said. "This office is uniquely positioned to
serve as a bridge and as a connector." 

Thanks for reading, 

Dan 

 

DONATE

 

**Follow Us**

 

[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]

National Immigration Forum

10 G Street NE, Suite 500

Washington, DC 20002

www.immigrationforum.org

 

Unsubscribe from The Forum Daily

or opt-out from all Forum emails.

 
_________________

Sent to [email protected]

Unsubscribe:
[link removed]

National Immigration Forum, 10 G St NE, Suite 500, Washington, D.C. 20002, United States