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THE FORUM DAILY

 

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In March, U.S. border authorities arrested 210,000 migrants at the
U.S.-Mexico border - "the highest monthly total in two decades," per
government data, reports Ted Hesson of Reuters
.  

According to the Friday court filing publicizing the numbers, about half
of the migrants encountered in March were expelled under Title 42.  

And over half of the migrants encountered at the border in recent months
have come from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, with an increase in
Ukrainians and Russians. 

In South America, Venezuelans are also fleeing to the U.S., report Jenny
Carolina Gonzalez and Juan Forero of The Wall Street Journal
,
with photos by Carlos Villalon. The financial impacts of COVID-19,
unemployment, xenophobia, and Venezuela's government are among their
many reasons for leaving their home country as well as countries like
Colombia and Peru. 

But their journey is far from easy. 

"We are a target for the smugglers of people, who for as low as $2,500
sell tourist packages for the American dream," said Niurka Meléndez,
who leads Venezuelans and Immigrants Aid in New York. "If I say, I'm
going there, a criminal organized crime group will move me because they
see me as a check to cash." 

Welcome to Monday's edition of The Forum Daily. 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
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**TITLE 42** - Migrants temporarily housed in crowded, dangerous
Mexican camps are desperate to leave - and banking on the Title 42
lift to start anew, per Dianne Solis of The Dallas Morning News
.
"Title 42: We are waiting for God to tell us they will let us pass,"
said Honduran asylum-seeker Juan Mejia. "Ojalá," God willing, he
added. Meanwhile, despite criticism, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is
still playing games with his latest border initiative and impacting
commerce, writes Gromer Jeffers Jr. of The Dallas Morning News
. Rev.
David A. Ritchie, Lead Pastor of Redeemer Christian Church in Amarillo,
Texas, couldn't agree more
.
And until the Biden administration lays out a plan to rescind the
policy, Democrats like Beto O'Rourke and others will continue to push
back the pending lift, report James Barragán and Patrick Svitek for The
Texas Tribune
.
Meanwhile, an investigation

from ProPublica, The Texas Tribune, and The Marshall Project
unveils the billions of dollars Texas spent on "a multitude of widely
publicized and costly border initiatives" since 2005, seldom yielding
results, per Lomi Kriel, Perla Trevizo, and Andrew Rodriguez
Calderón. 

TPS FOR CAMEROON - The Department of Homeland Security granted
Cameroonians already living in the U.S. Temporary Protected Status

on Friday, report Kristina Cooke and Mica Rosenberg of Reuters
.
About 12,000 Cameroonians will be eligible for TPS, per the department.
"Cameroonian nationals currently residing in the U.S. who cannot safely
return due to the extreme violence perpetrated by government forces and
armed separatists, and a rise in attacks led by Boko Haram, will be able
to remain and work in the United States until conditions in their home
country improve," said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas
via statement
. 

TELLING AFGHAN STORIES - While the world moves on from the crisis in
Afghanistan, Afghan refugees are unable to, writes Candace Rondeaux,
senior fellow for the Center on the Future of War, in a personal column
for World Politics Review
.
While hundreds of thousands of Afghans have resettled across the U.S.,
Canada, and Europe, "many more are still languishing in a kind of legal
and psychological limbo," awaiting permanent resettlement. "This is a
special kind of hell: being alive but imprisoned by a life left behind,
and with so many questions unanswered about why everything went so
horribly wrong." In continuing to tell their stories, "the world will
know the hell that millions of Afghans are living - and the courage it
takes to keep dreaming of heaven anyway." 

In local welcome: 

* An Islamic Relief USA donation of $12,425 has allowed the
Pakistani-American Alliance for Compassion and Education Inc. "to
provide food, hygiene kits, and other forms of help to people facing
hardships and food insecurity," including a food pantry for Afghan
refugees in Bowling Green, Kentucky. (WNKY
) 

* For Passover, refugee stories - including those of recently
resettled Afghans - are being "woven throughout the liturgy of the
seder" at Congregation B'nai Emunah in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Ayelet
Parness, HIAS
) 

**COMPASSION FOR ALL** - The U.S. and the world must welcome and
empathize with all refugees, writes Lautaro Grinspan of The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution
.
"What has stood out to me is the [humanizing] narrative that is being
created around Ukrainians," said Kargbo Thompson, an Atlanta organizer
with the Black Alliance for Just Immigration. "That same narrative
should also be created when we are talking about other migrants, Black
and brown migrants who are also seeking refuge and are going through all
types of journeys in horrific conditions in order to come to the border
and get help ... My wish is that all people could be given the same sort
of compassion." The New York Times
'
Max Fisher sums it up best: "Europe's seeming double standard - as
its governments welcome Ukrainians but continue going to extraordinary
lengths to keep out migrants from the Middle East - has laid the
unwritten norms of the new refugee system especially bare." 

Thanks for reading, 

Ali 

 

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