Let’s rewind a bit. 

Last week, Judge Robert Summerhays (a Trump appointee) ruled that the Biden administration did not have grounds to rescind Title 42 without the required notice-and-comment process. (Title 42 was originally instituted in March 2020 without a notice-and-comment period). 

Now, some advocates are urging the Biden administration to not only seek a stay of Title 42 to pause it, but to go through the rulemaking process to end it, reports Rebecca Beitsch of The Hill. 

"I think Title 42 needs to end immediately. The quickest way to do that is to obtain a stay," said the ACLU’s Lee Gelernt. However, Gelernt added, "If the administration cannot obtain a stay, then doing notice and comment quickly would be more immediate than allowing an appeal to go forward over months and possibly a year or more."  

As Beitsch notes, the court’s decision "requires the Biden administration to jump through more administrative hoops to wind the order than the Trump administration took in creating it." 

Ending the policy for good will take time. Meanwhile, a reminder that this isn’t a binary choice between Title 42 or no border policy — we have 42 Border Solutions That Are Not Title 42. 

Welcome to Tuesday’s edition of The Forum Daily. I’m Joanna Taylor, Senior Communications Manager at the Forum. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected].  

GEORGIA’S FARMWORKERS — Last year, after a multi-year human trafficking case in Georgia exposed the poor conditions and abuses of undocumented farmworkers at farms and meat processing plants, the federal government began pursuing reforms, per Ximena Bustillo of NPR. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas recently sent a letter to Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Georgia) explaining that the department "is preparing to take the first step toward creating a rule reforming the H-2A and H-2B nonimmigrant worker visas." The proposed rulemaking process would address some of the most pressing challenges in the Georgia case, "such as workers being overcharged and issued illegal fees for visas and facing salary shortages." We need a better system.  

REFUGEE KITCHEN — In Missoula, Montana, 18 refugee home cooks are running the city’s most in-demand restaurant, reports Kate Bernot for The New York Times. As part of the weekly program United We Eat @Home, "refugees and other immigrants living in Missoula cook takeout meals to supplement their income." The meals, which quickly sell out every week, offer specific cultural foods that are otherwise hard to find in Missoula. "It’s about shifting those power dynamics and making sure that in this space, this is the refugee chef’s sphere," said Beth Baker, the program’s manager. Speaking of refugees transforming a space: For WBEZ Chicago, Elly Fishman shows how Afghan refugee students changed the dynamic and built community at a Chicago high school. 

On local welcome: 

• In Boston, 350 volunteers at 31 sites across the archdiocese were recognized at the Catholic Charities of Boston Spring Celebration for helping resettle 160 Afghan refugees. (Jacqueline Tetrault, The Boston Pilot) 
• In collaboration with the Columbus-based Community Refugee and Immigration Services (CRIS), a welcome team with St. Andrew’s Anglican Church has helped resettle Afghan families in Central Ohio, collecting donations and providing them with food and furniture. (Joshua Keeran, The Delaware Gazette) 

BILOELA — Australia’s new government announced Friday that it would give a family of four Sri Lankan asylum-seekers temporary bridging visas after three years of being held in offshore immigration detention, Byron Kaye reports for Reuters. As a result of the decision, the parents can now stay in their adopted hometown of Biloela as their asylum application is pending. "When I visited Biloela in 2019, I saw just how much the community loves Priya, Nades, Kopika and Tharnicaa," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese tweeted. "Today my government has enabled them to return home." Last summer, Yan Zhuang of The New York Times reported that one of the children in the family, Tharnicaa Murugappan, had been medically evacuated from the detention center to mainland Australia, "[renewing] calls for the family to be released from detention and [prompting] candlelight vigils and protests across Australia." 

‘GUIDES ON YOUR JOURNEY’ — For the National Catholic Reporter, Pauline Hovey reflects on how accompanying migrants at the border "enriches [the] spiritual lives" of pastors and lay volunteers like herself. "The more you get to know [migrants] as human beings, the closer you feel, the more you share their pain, and then are moved to speak strongly without fear," said El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz. "Then you can go a step further and recognize them as guides on your journey." 

Thanks for reading, 

Joanna