Advocates say the policy combination has "[sown] confusion and compounded the challenges, with a border backlog that continues to put people at risk." 

Under MPP, from December through the end of July, the government returned 7,112 asylum-seekers to Mexico to await court hearings, per DHS data. And under Title 42, border officials expelled 72,616 migrants along the Southwest border in July, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.   

"That’s the bizarre tension here," said Lisa Koop, associate director of legal services at the National Immigrant Justice Center. "As much as we rejoice MPP going away, with Title 42 in place it’s kind of cold comfort. People are going to have zero access to asylum." 

A regular reminder that solutions other than Title 42 exist. 

Welcome to Wednesday’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]. 

CUBAN ASYLUM SEEKERS — In the Miami Herald, Nora Gámez Torres offers a window into how asylum works — and the fact that seeking asylum is legal. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans continue to seek asylum to live and work in the U.S. legally, due to government repression and a low quality of life in their home country, she reports. Most qualify for legal status under the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act. "They’re here waiting for their case to be heard; they have due process rights for that. And there’s no illegality behind it," said David Claros, the managing attorney for the Church World Services’ South Florida legal department. He noted that the same is true for many migrants from other countries, who are "legally authorized to stay and work" in the U.S. while their cases are pending. 

BORDER BOTTLENECKS — During the Trump administration, ICE instructed its agents to deactivate and wipe their data from agency-issued phones before returning them, Geneva Sands reports for CNN. That’s according to a court filing Friday as part of a public-records request from watchdog group American Oversight. "We cannot stand by as agency after agency admits that it destroys public records," said Heather Sawyer, the organization’s executive director. "Text messages often contain crucial information on what federal employees are doing and why they are doing it. The obligation to retain these records is not optional — it is the law." 

UKRAINIANS — An estimated 150,000 Ukrainian evacuees have entered the U.S., surpassing President Biden’s original pledge to welcome 100,000, reports Marc Ramirez for USA Today. But 150,000 is just a fraction of the more than 6 million displaced Ukrainians, and with more than half of the evacuees here on a temporary basis, their future in the U.S. remains uncertain. "It’s important that the U.S. continue to serve as a safe haven," said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, President and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. "But it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the massive displacement we’ve seen." Today also marks Ukraine’s Independence Day. In the third installment in a "Refugee Diaries" series in POLITICO, five Ukrainian refugees in Europe "reflect on past commemorations, share their hopes for the future, and write a letter to fellow refugees spending this year’s Independence Day away from home." 

ONE YEAR LATER — Valerie Plesch of DCist shares the stories of Afghan evacuees as they reflect on their new lives in Washington, D.C. "We didn’t just leave our country — I left my friends, I left my dream of graduating from Afghan Turk High School. That dream is incomplete, I will never achieve it … I am here but every piece of me is there: my friends, my house, my school, my dreams," said Asal Forotan, 16. Meanwhile, hundreds of Afghan evacuees in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been protesting for weeks as they await resettlement in the U.S. or elsewhere, per Alexander Cornwell of Reuters. 

Locally:

• After fleeing Afghanistan himself, former interpreter Ahmad Ibrahami now works as a case manager for Rochester Refugee Resettlement services, helping other Afghan evacuees apply for jobs, learn to drive, and find housing. (Alex Love, WROC)  
  
• Svetlana Stahl of Michigan befriended Olga Pluzhynk of Ukraine online shortly after the war started and has since taken her in. "I keep telling her she’s not a bother, she’s not a burden to me. I never had a sister and I feel like we have a lot in common," Stahl said. (Caylee Kirby, WTOL) 

MO’S NEW SHOW — Comedian Mo Amer’s new show, Mo, co-created with Ramy Youssef, is a semi-autobiographical look into the experience of people who resettle here after being forcibly displaced, per Leila Fadel and Phil Harrell of NPR. Set in the suburb of Houston where Amer grew up, the show follows the life of an asylum seeker "in immigration limbo" and reveals "the comedy and tragedy in his family’s tale." Said Amer, "Millions of people are going to relate to this and it can empower them to better their lives. And also people who didn’t go through it can relate to it and have empathy for it." 

Thanks for reading,  

Dan  

P.S. In the last of a three-part Evangelical Immigration Table blog series, Jenny Groen of Minnesota, the Willmar Area Coordinator for Arrive Ministries, reflects on a recent trip to the border and centers on one question: "Where is the church?" Her post was originally published on Arrive Ministries.