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Eduardo (Eddie) Canales of Brooks County, Texas, helps families reunite with loved ones who have gone missing along the border — whether they’re alive or not, reports Rachel Monroe of The New Yorker. Canales, through his nonprofit South Texas Human Rights Center, has quickly become the go-to person to help families navigate the daunting process — amid challenging terrain and linguistic barriers. His phone number is now circulating across several migrant-assistance networks and Facebook groups. And he has been able to build rapport with the sheriff’s department and some Border Patrol agents. The center also makes water available along migration routes to avert deaths from thirst. Like Canales, "I care about people," said Nora Salinas, a former sheriff’s office employee and justice of peace who now works for the center. "... It doesn’t matter who is missing out there. They have loved ones." This year is on track to be the deadliest on record in Brooks County, with close to 70 recoveries of remains so far. Welcome to Thursday’s edition of The Forum Daily. I’m Dan Gordon, the Forum’s strategic communications VP, and today our hearts and prayers go out to the families, friends, and colleagues of Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Indiana) and her staffers who were killed in a car crash yesterday afternoon. We’re pausing the Daily on Fridays this month, so we’ll be back Monday. If you have a story to share from your own community, let us know at [email protected]. DISCRETION — A court ruling that has forced the Biden administration to halt its immigration enforcement priorities is causing ripple effects for undocumented immigrants as well as ICE, Suzanne Monyak reports in Roll Call. The lack of unified guidance that had prioritized national security threats could lead to "some inconsistent decision-making across the country and threaten agency operations long-term," Monyak writes. "If you don’t know from one day to the next what the rules are, it’s really hard to operate," added Theresa Cardinal Brown, a DHS policy official during the George W. Bush administration. ‘CONGRESS SHOULDN’T WAIT’ — A few more beats on the drum for reforms: On Wednesday, a New York judge denied a request on behalf of at least 80,000 first-time Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals applicants to resume their applications, reports Patricia Hurtado of Bloomberg News. Current DACA recipients also remain in limbo: Christy Staats, a Midwest mobilizer for the Forum, writes in the Cleveland Plain Dealer about her friend Karla, a contributing member of the community who lacks certainty. "Dreamers don’t have the luxury to ask the courts to wait until after the 2022 midterm elections to determine their future in America," Staats writes. "Congress shouldn’t wait either." Meanwhile, on the ag front, Sabrina Halvorson of AgNet Media, Inc. reports that the Agriculture Workforce Coalition sent a letter to Senate leaders this week, urging them to pass the Farm Workforce Modernization Act now "to provide stability for our existing workers and make key reforms to the H-2A program." MISLEADING NARRATIVES — As midterm elections ramp up, Republicans are centering and amplifying dangerous anti-immigrant rhetoric in their political ad campaigns, reports Joel Rose of NPR. "This type of rhetoric, it’s meant to agitate people for political reasons … because it makes people feel anger and hate," said Vanessa Cárdenas, the deputy director of America’s Voice. As Rose points out, the rhetoric has ties to Great Replacement Theory — see our resources here. Rose also notes former president Trump’s use of such language. Speaking of Trump, Stuart Anderson has an analysis in Forbes of what immigration could like if Trump returns to office. JUDGE’S ORDER — President Biden immediately ended his predecessor’s ban on the arrival of people from certain, mostly Muslim countries. Now a judge has ordered that the administration develop new rules for allowing the entry of first-time visa applicants who were denied visas under the bans, reports Bob Egelko for The San Francisco Chronicle. "We are thrilled that the court heard the pleas of our plaintiffs and saw through the government's attempts to brush aside the very real harms inflicted by the Muslim ban, which continues even after its rescission," said attorney Shabnam Lofti. RESETTLEMENT PROCESS — Afghan evacuees were not resettled through the formal refugee process, leaving their futures in doubt, Lautaro Grinspan writes in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Their humanitarian parole status is temporary, and without legislative relief, they are faced with a deadline to apply for asylum. "Many refugees and immigrant groups start their own businesses. How do you start a business if you don’t even know you’re going to be here in a year?" said Justin Howell, executive director of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Atlanta, whose organization is among those guiding evacuees through their asylum applications and helping them acclimate to the U.S. Regarding refugees, 30 Democratic senators urged the Biden administration to increase the refugee admissions cap and "take proactive steps" to admit more refugees in fiscal year 2023, per Nicole Rosenthal of Law360. Locally:
Thanks for reading, Dan |
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