The boat was carrying an estimated 60 people, including women and children, when it departed from the northwest side of the capital, Nassau. Twenty-five people were rescued, per Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Davis. 

"I understand the situations that many of these migrants face, that have encouraged them to take such great risk. We, however, appeal to those considering making such a voyage not to do so," Davis said. 

Desperation continues to drive migrants to try to reach Europe as well: Over the weekend, the Italian Coast Guard and European charities rescued more than 1,100 migrants and found five who had perished, the Associated Press reports. And Molly Blackall of inews reports that women and young children trying to reach Europe in search of a better life are especially prone to burns from fuel leaks on small boats, according to humanitarian doctors. 

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]. 

ICE ID CARD — As part of an initiative to streamline processes for migrants in removal proceedings, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is developing a new identification card "to serve as a one-stop shop to access immigration files," Priscilla Alvarez of CNN reports. The so-called "Secure Docket Card" would include a migrant’s name and nationality, and a QR code would link to a new portal through which people could update their information and check in with authorities. "The ICE Secure Docket Card (SDC) program is part of a pilot program to modernize various forms of documentation provided to provisionally released noncitizens through a consistent, verifiable, secure card," an ICE spokesperson said in a statement.  

LIMBO — As next month’s one-year anniversary of the fall of Kabul approaches, Afghan evacuees settling in the U.S. still lack a legal pathway to permanent residence and citizenship, Mike Woods reports for Spectrum News 1. For evacuees currently on short-term status, such as humanitarian parole or temporary protected status, the future is uncertain. Waris Samsoor is one: Having worked with the U.S. military in Afghanistan, he says that a return would mean "certain death," per his translator, Rachel Robbins. An Afghan Adjustment Act would offer relief both bureaucratic and emotional to Waris, his family, and thousands of others in the U.S. 

Recently in local welcome: 

• The First United Methodist Church of Claremore in Oklahoma is sponsoring two recently arrived Ukrainian families, having raised money to help with paperwork, airfare and apartment furnishings. (Chinh Doan, News on 6). 
• Guy Mpoyi, originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, founded a Bus Ambassadors Program to help asylum seekers in Portland, Maine, navigate public transportation systems. (Sean Stackhouse, News Center Maine)  

‘NOBODY BELIEVES US’ — Allegations of abuse continue to mount at ICE facilities across the country, especially in detention centers with large Black populations, reports Rita Omokha for The Guardian. Advocacy organizations such as Freedom for Immigrants (FFI) field thousands of complaints every month, and Black migrants "experience higher rates of deportation; sexual, physical, medical, and psychological abuses in detention; and solitary confinement." Said Patrice Lawrence, executive director of UndocuBlack, "Nobody believes us when we say they don’t treat us like humans, and they grab us and they abuse us and they hurl slurs at us and they do not treat us with any form of dignity, much less compassion." Black immigrants in detention number more than 4,500. 

REGISTRY DATE — "[T]his new initiative, as hopeless as it may seem, makes sense." That’s Andy J. Semotiuk’s conclusion, in Forbes, regarding a bill House Democrats introduced last week that would allow undocumented immigrants to apply for immigration status after seven years of residence in the U.S., with a rolling registry date. (The current arrival cutoff for registry is Jan. 1, 1972.) Semotiuk points out some of the thinking behind the original introduction of a registry date: "For one, it was felt that there was a point beyond which an undocumented immigrant’s contribution to this country outweighed the harm done. For another, Registry was a recognition of the impracticality of chasing such people forever." The proposed update would offer relief for immigrants who have put down deep roots and have come to share American values— as well as "relieve America of one of its greatest burdens."  

Thanks for reading, 

Dan