Tuesday, September 20
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THE FORUM DAILY

Some transported migrants are calling the free transportation a
blessing, reports Miriam Jordan of The New York Times
. 

"There is so much opportunity here," Lever Alejos, originally of
Venezuela, said. In July he arrived penniless in Washington, D.C.,
without a home, family, or friends to greet him. Now he's working and
saving money for a used car and to get his own place. 

Like so many communities that receive migrants, residents of Martha's
Vineyard who welcomed migrants during their two-day stay last week are
also feeling blessed, reports Ray Sanchez of CNN
.
"We're used to dealing with people in need ... they enriched us,
we're happy to help them on their journey," said Sean O'Sullivan, a
volunteer with Harbor Homes. 

Catholic, evangelical Christian, and Jewish faith leaders are also
weighing in, calling DeSantis's transport of migrants to Martha's
Vineyard "a political stunt that betrays the values of most religions,
including his own," Daniel Kool reports in the Boston Globe
. 

The flights were "incompatible with the gospel of Jesus Christ," said
Gabriel Salguero, founder of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition
and a Florida pastor. "This is not for us a partisan issue. This for us
is a moral issue. What do we do with people who are seeking asylum, who
are trying to better their lives, who are many times fleeing not just
from political and economic upheaval, but from a very threat to their
lives?" 

In New York City, chefs and owners at a soon-to-open Singaporean food
hall in Manhattan are planning to offer jobs to eligible migrants
recently sent to the state from Texas and Florida, reports Ginnie Teo of
The New York Daily News
. 

Meanwhile, Sheriff Javier Salazar of Bexar County, Texas, is launching a
criminal investigation into Gov. Ron DeSantis's (R) initiative to
send migrants from Texas to Martha's Vineyard with Florida taxpayer
dollars, a team at CBS News Miami

reports. 

For more context, read Elliot Spagat's solid explainer for the
Associated Press
. 

Thank you to the reader who pointed out that we misspelled Colombia in
an edition last week. We apologize for the error. And welcome to
Tuesday'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] . 

NEW

**BORDER DATA** - U.S. Customs and Border Protection released August
border data

yesterday. Overall encounters increased slightly - to 203,597, a
1.8% increase from July's total - but Venezuelan arrivals were up
44% from July and about 400% since May, our policy expert Danilo Zak
notes . Unique
encounters with migrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba are up 175%
from August 2021. "Failing Communist regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua and
Cuba are driving a new wave of migration across the Western Hemisphere,
including the recent increase in encounters at the southwest U.S.
border," CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus said Monday
.
Some good news, as Danilo notes: Processing at ports of entry, long
mostly closed to asylum seekers, has increased significantly. That
incentivizes safer, more orderly border processes, rather than
smuggling. 

BORDER WALL - The Biden administration plans to resume work next month
on border barriers in Arizona, reports Ryan Devereaux of The Intercept
. On
Wednesday, CBP provided details on how it plans to address the
environmental damage caused by the Trump administration's work on the
wall and "confirmed that the wall will remain a permanent fixture of
the Southwest for generations to come," notes Devereaux. I can't help
but think back to a recent visit to the National Building Museum's
exhibit "The Wall/El Muro: What is a Border Wall?" In case you missed
our mention last week, my colleague (and Forum Daily drafter
extraordinaire) Dynahlee Padilla-Vasquez recently wrote about the
exhibit . 

CLIMATE MIGRATION COUNCIL - A diverse group of leaders, thinkers and
activists makes up the new Climate Migration Council, reports Ed
O'Keefe of CBS News
.
The council will participate in the United Nations General Assembly to
help world leaders address migration spurred by climate change. "It's
a hard conversation to have, but it's one that if we're going to be
responsible about how we manage this large-scale flow of people, we need
to get on top of it," said Marshall Fitz of the Emerson Collective. The
news seems timely as we pray for the people affected by major flooding
in Pakistan and, this week, those in the Caribbean affected by Hurricane
Fiona
.
That includes our fellow Americans in Puerto Rico, who are now starting
to clean up after a storm that hit five years (nearly to the day) after
Hurricane María

(read this story if you haven't already). 

**MAMAS UNIDAS** - Mamas Unidas Little Rock, a nonprofit organization
in the Arkansas capital, is equipping students and their families in
Spanish-speaking households with the tools and resources they need to
succeed, reports Julissa Garza of KTHV
.
Workshops include preparing students for college and assisting with
scholarships. "I was first generation, low income at that time I was
with DACA so everything when you think about barriers, I had those,"
said Sandra Carmona Jobe, a member of the group. "[Students] come back
and say thanks to you I was able to get a full ride[,] thanks to you I
got this scholarship or was accepted." 

Thanks for reading, 

Dan 

P.S. Adding a little kick with a great thread on onetime Vietnamese
refugee David Tran, who created Huy Fong's Sriracha sauce. Per
business writer Trung Phan on Twitter
,
Tran's creation has "hit revenue of $150m+ a year ... with no sales
team, no trademark and $0 in ad spend ... making the sauce's success a
tale of immigrant hustle and a product that literally sells itself."

 

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