The bipartisan push for immigration reforms this year is gaining momentum.  

Reps. Dan Newhouse (R-Washington) and Salud Carbajal (D-California) joined speakers representing Catholic, Dreamer, agriculture and border perspectives and talked about the need for consensus-based solutions at a press conference yesterday convened by the Alliance for a New Immigration Consensus.  

And Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) is planning to meet today with Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Alex Padilla (D-California), and Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) for "preliminary efforts to identify potentially bipartisan immigration bills," as Roll Call’s Suzanne Monyak tweeted yesterday afternoon. "I’m [not] ruling anything in or out," Durbin said. 

These are all good things.  

Welcome to Thursday’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. 

‘IT WILL TAKE TIME’— Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified at two congressional hearings yesterday concerning the administration’s plans to lift Title 42, Michelle Hackman and Tarini Parti at The Wall Street Journal report. The hearings came a day after the administration released a detailed border strategy amid calls from both Republicans and Democrats to keep Title 42 in place until a plan is set. "We started our planning last September, and we are leading the execution of a whole-of-government strategy," Mayorkas said. " ... A significant increase in migrant encounters will strain our system even further, and we will address this challenge successfully. But it will take time." 

MOLDOVA — More than 11 million people have been displaced since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and no country has taken in more Ukrainian refugees per capita than neighboring Moldova. But as a member of neither NATO nor the E.U., as Ayman Oghanna reports for NBC News, Moldova "lacks the resources, space and support received by some of Ukraine’s other neighbors." It’s also "terribly vulnerable to a hostile Russia," from which it receives all of its gas and electricity. But with an estimated 16% of the country’s population now made up of refugees, local support has been strong. "Most of the support was based on volunteers, so it was really just Moldovans going there with food carts, clothes, offering transport, accommodation and more," said Bea Ferenci, a U.N. human rights adviser in Moldova. 

TEXAS FACT CHECK — A stellar team from ProPublica, The Texas Tribune, and The Marshall Project has put together a list of seven times Texas officials have "cited accomplishments that lacked crucial context or did not match reality" when it comes to Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) border initiative, Operation Lone Star. Among the misleading claims: the percentage of migrants arrested at the border, the number of gang members targeted and drugs seized, border security spending, and more. Bottom line? Abbott and Co. have touted Operation Lone Star as a major success, but the most expensive of the state’s border operations isn’t doing much for public safety or border security. Meanwhile, the New York Post’s MaryAnn Martinez reports that Abbott is seeking "contributions to ‘Border Transportation Funding’ by credit card or mailed check." But "[h]is office did not respond to The Post’s request asking why donations are being sought." 

NEW LIVES — When refugees arrive in the U.S., it’s not the end of their resettlement journey — it’s the beginning of a difficult and uncertain adjustment, as Grace Segers details in the New Republic. From culture shock and separation from family to difficulties securing employment or a driver’s license, refugees face countless hurdles to rebuild their lives. And for many Afghan refugees, these struggles are compounded by a lack of permanent status in the U.S. "They don’t know if they have to apply for asylum, or if they have to apply to extend their work permits, or if they are going to get green cards," said Maiwand Basiri, an Afghan parolee case manager. "These are the questions that we face every day, and we cannot even guide them for legal services because we don’t even know what’s going to happen to their legal status in America." Yet another reminder that we need an Afghan Adjustment Act. 

In local welcome: