"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