On Friday, Judge Drew Tipton of the Texas Southern District Court put a crimp in that approach. Tipton ruled that immigration authorities cannot follow enforcement guidelines the Biden administration established to prioritize public-safety threats, as Priscilla Alvarez of CNN reports. 

Meanwhile, Mexico’s migration agency "issued nearly 7,000 temporary documents and transit visas" to a large group of migrants last week, per the Associated Press: "[M]igrants showed papers that gave them a period of one month or more to leave the country or begin regularization procedures in Mexico."  

These developments come as the Summit of the Americas concluded, with the Biden administration and Latin American countries agreeing to a migration deal to help manage flows for vulnerable migrants seeking asylum, The New York Times’ Michael D. Shear reports. The U.S. pledged to take 20,000 refugees from Latin America during the next two years, a threefold increase, per administration officials, in addition to increasing the number of seasonal worker visas from Central America and Haiti by 11,500. 

"Our common humanity demands that we care for our neighbors by working together," said President Biden. "Each of us is signing up to commitments that recognizes the challenges we all share." 

As we’ve noted, moving toward a comprehensive regional response is a positive step. 

A final quick word coming out of the weekend: The Senate’s deal on gun legislation shows that bipartisanship is possible. Next up, senators, how about immigration and border reforms? 

Welcome to Monday’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].  

UKRAINIAN REFUGEES — The number of Ukrainian refugees stands at about 5 million. As Stuart Anderson writes in Forbes, the U.S. is using humanitarian parole, which provides no path to permanent residence. "Private and community sponsorship is great, something which is happening in the context of the Afghan and Ukraine parole efforts," said Mark Hetfield, president and CEO of HIAS. But "[b]y using parole, we are bringing refugees here without the pathway to lawful permanent residence and citizenship that refugees are provided by the Refugee Act." The war’s effects are rippling out to other parts of the world as well, with nearly half of Somalia’s population "facing acute food shortages," reports Abdi Latif Dahir of The New York Times (with stark photos by Malin Fezehai). 

POLICY CHALLENGES — For WORLD Magazine, Addie Michaelian dives deep into the challenges of Title 42 winding through the courts. "We are basically in what I would call litigation pingpong," said Theresa Cardinal Brown, managing director of immigration and cross-border policy with the Bipartisan Policy Center. "No one really knows what policy will be in place tomorrow." Yes, border policy should go beyond Title 42. Meanwhile, in The San Diego Tribune, Kate Morrissey sheds light on the plight of Haitian migrants waiting in Tijuana for the policy to lift, with powerful photos by Ana Ramirez. For more on how the policy is affecting migrants, check out Claire Moses’ conversation with reporter Eileen Sullivan in The New York Times.  

SHAPING THE FUTURE — This year, 368 students enrolled at Las Americas Newcomer School in Houston, a school for asylum-seeking, immigrant, and refugee children — including 90 Afghan refugees, reports Katie Reilly of TIME magazine. Students here speak more than 30 languages combined. "My mission is to make sure that we put those families on a successful path, so they can be our next doctors, our next engineers, and provide them with the opportunity that they want to strive to be," said Marie Moreno, the school’s longtime principal who just departed.  

Meanwhile, in local Afghan Welcome: 

• United States Air Force Senior Airman and Liberty University alum Grace Tinkey contributed to Operation Allies Refuge, which helped Afghan civilians flee during the U.S. military’s departure: "I felt like it was my job to help make the process as easy for them as possible and do anything I could to make them feel more comfortable and safer." (Ryan Klinker, Liberty University) 
• The follow-up on a story we teased last week: "How often are we presented with an opportunity to change somebody’s life?" said Ann Wittman, an Afghan volunteer from Ellisville, Missouri. "I had to take it." (Kayla Drake, St. Louis Public Radio)  
• The new "Welcome Sesame," from the Sesame Workshop, offers educational materials to Afghan and Ukrainian refugee families, "available in Dari, Pashto, Ukrainian, Spanish, and English, and [covering] subjects ranging from coping with the trauma of resettlement to fostering a sense of belonging." (Michael Grothaus, Fast Company) 

ARIZONA — In the absence of federal immigration reforms, states continue to try to step in. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) and Republican legislative leaders have proposed spending $544 million taxpayer dollars on border security, reports Jeremy Duda of Axios, even as Ducey spokesperson C.J. Karamargin acknowledges that "[t]his ultimately is a federal responsibility …." Not all Republicans are aboard: Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita said the state’s surplus should focus more on "providing additional tax relief to Arizonans who are suffering from inflation and high gas prices."  

Thanks for reading, 

Dan