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