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 spread the word. They can subscribe here. 

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