Olena Kopchak and her family of three are among the millions of Ukrainian refugees who fled their homes. They’re temporarily housed in a small bedroom apartment in Warsaw, Poland, but are hoping to connect with Kopchak’s sister, Svitlana Rogers, who lives in New Jersey.  

Rogers has called upon her state’s senators and House members and is constantly checking the State Department and United Nations websites for updated information.  

"I’m feeling like we’re stuck in limbo, and we don’t know where to go," she said.  

A new parole program could help families like Kopchak’s — and the Biden administration is preparing to roll out such a program for Ukrainians as early as next week, Priscilla Alvarez and Kevin Liptak of CNN report. The program comes as the administration recently committed to welcoming up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees. 

Details are still being finalized, but an administration official drew parallels with the resettlement of Afghans, with the State Department and DHS involved.  

As my colleague Danilo Zak wrote recently in The UnPopulist, parole is the best fit for Ukrainians who have a separate path to permanent residence here, such as those with family members already in the U.S. That’s because humanitarian parole, on its own, offers only temporary status — and uncertainty.  

Welcome to Wednesday’s edition of The Forum Daily. I’m Dan Gordon, the Forum’s strategic communications VP, filling in for Ali today. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected].  

POLICY DIVISIONS — For The American Prospect, David Dayen takes a hard look at Title 42’s history. Its use since March 2020 has resulted in more than 1.7 million expulsions, leaving migrants without access to an asylum hearing — and causing inflated border numbers, as that number includes repeat attempts. Dayen notes that Republicans have resisted pandemic-era restrictions but are eager to keep this one, even as some migrants are allowed entry. For NBC News, Sahil Kapur reports on the infighting about the forthcoming policy lift, while underscoring the "the mismatch between law and resources" to reverse it. The politics are distracting from the reality that we need longer-term border solutions and immigration reforms — the subject of a press call today at 11 a.m. Media can contact Audrey Garden for details. 

BIGGER PICTURE — Amid the focus on the border, the larger immigration issue is the dwindling workforce — and how it contributes to inflation, columnist Catherine Rampell writes for The Washington Post. Among "missing" workers, "a huge chunk were foreign-born workers who either never arrived in the United States in recent years or who were already here but have been forced out of their jobs because of government incompetence. … [T]he many businesses that rely on these workers are losing critical staff, making inflation worse." Trump-era policies, the impact of COVID-19, and "Biden’s foot-dragging" are to blame for the missing immigrant workforce, notes Rampell. Without their contributions, it "directly affects voters’ pocketbooks — and, by extension, Democrats’ political fortunes," she concludes. Meanwhile, a new CBS poll shows that inflation is a primary concern among Americans, per Jennifer de Pinto, Fred Backus, and Anthony Salvanto. 

GRAPHIC TRUTH — This is a tough one. For The New York Times, an Opinion Video investigation reveals how the Taliban "have been on a campaign of revenge killings against former U.S. allies," per Barbara Marcolini, Sanjar Sohail, and Alexander Stockton. According to the video, an estimated 490 Afghan allies have either been murdered or forcibly disappeared, with the number still growing and the official number unknown. The video contains graphic images and audio but tells a heart-wrenching story about Afghans missing — and the toll it has taken on families, who want to seek justice but fear retribution.  

Thanks for reading, 

Dan