It has been a tough week. For immigration advocates, it has been a tough 5, or 10, or 35 years.

So, taking a cue from our former chief, I’d like to start today by focusing on joy. At a reception last night celebrating Ali Noorani’s 14-year tenure at the Forum, he talked about joy as the reason he loved this work.

That resonates. For all the challenging news in immigration, for all of the polarization and politicking, we at the Forum are lucky — some would say blessed — to be able to work with, and on behalf of, people for whom the promise of America is still alive and well.

We see the joy among America’s newest citizens, and among those who have built lives here with no promise of permanence, even as they contribute to their communities and their country. We see it, too, among native-born Americans who have come to know the hope, the dignity, the faith of their immigrant neighbors.

Let’s take a minute to honor that joy.

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

ASYLUM RULE — Starting Tuesday, U.S. immigration authorities will interview certain asylum seekers seeking humanitarian protection at two Texas detention facilities under the Biden administration’s new asylum rule, per Camilo Montoya-Galvez of CBS News. With DHS officials able to process some cases fully and avoid the backlog of 1.7 million immigration court cases, the program is meant to "allow the U.S. to more quickly grant asylum to those fleeing persecution, while expediting the deportation of migrants who don't meet the legal threshold for U.S. refuge."

UNDOCUMENTED GRADUATES — Most of this year’s 100,000 undocumented high school graduates will not be eligible for deportation protections under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), according to a new report by Phillip Connor at FWD.us. That’s because they arrived after the DACA cutoff date of June 15, 2007. At the same time, "more than four in ten (43%) of this year’s undocumented graduates live in one of 28 states where they are denied full tuition equity, dramatically reducing many students’ ability to pay for higher education," limiting their access to professional training, work experience, and income to support themselves and their families. To ensure the future of all graduating classes, federal and state leaders must work together to pass broad reforms, Connor writes.

DEDICATED DOCKET — The Biden administration said its "dedicated docket" program would help resolve asylum seekers’ cases "more expeditiously and fairly." Instead, it has created more hurdles for migrants navigating the system, including more orders for removal, reports Cindy Carcamo of The Los Angeles Times. Per a new report by the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA Law, an estimated 99% of the 449 cases completed in February resulted in removal orders. The data show that 72% of those cases were issued to immigrants who missed their court hearing — and almost half of those in absentia removal orders are for children (many 6 and younger) in family units, Carcamo notes.

DETERRENCE — For The New Yorker, Rachel Monroe examines the history of both the Migrant Protection Protocols and Title 42 as tools used to restrict migrants from seeking asylum in the U.S. "M.P.P. is saying, ‘You’re staying outside the country,’" said Theresa Cardinal Brown of the Bipartisan Policy Center, a former DHS official. "Title 42 doubles down on that by saying, ‘We’re not even going to pretend to give you a process by which you might eventually stay in the country. You’re just not coming in, period.’" Deterrence doesn’t work when migrants fear for their lives and their families’ safety in their home country, she said, and that means "[w]e need to rethink whether treating everything as a law-enforcement matter is the right strategy here."

‘AMERICAN POVERTY’ — A group of Democratic senators is urging the Biden administration to treat Afghan refugees with the same level of welcome as Ukrainians, reports Abigail Hauslohner of The Washington Post. The push comes as Afghan refugees continue to struggle with finding permanent affordable housing in the U.S., per Sanya Mansoor of TIME Magazine. Government assistance and support from resettlement organizations are just not enough, experts say. "What happens is that people are admitted and they’re expected to be grateful, to live the American dream," said Heba Gowayed, an assistant sociology professor at Boston University. "Admitting people into American poverty is no one’s salvation."