Walter Slosar, chief patrol agent for the Border Patrol’s Miami Sector Headquarters, had taken to Twitter on Monday to warn people against attempting such a journey: "Over the weekend, 50 migrants from #Cuba were taken into Border Patrol custody after making landfall during 3 events in the #FloridaKeys on makeshift vessels. The risks are even greater during a #Hurricane & potentially life-threatening to anyone onboard. #DontTakeToTheSea." 

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday that it is temporarily pausing immigration enforcement activities at Hurricane Ian emergency response and relief sites, reports Axios’ Shawna Chen. Agencies within the department are available to help respond to the storm, Chen notes. 

In other news, representatives of more than a dozen Western Hemisphere countries gathered at the White House earlier this week to continue working together to address migration and combat human smuggling networks, reports Priscilla Alvarez of CNN. The meeting is the first follow-up to the Los Angeles Declaration at June’s Summit of the Americas.  

Welcome to Thursday’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].  

DACA — The Biden administration is making alternate plans to protect more than 600,000 Dreamers who currently have Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), report Josh Lederman and Julia Ainsley of NBC News. A 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision on DACA is likely to come soon and could end it, and the administration is working on executive action that would deprioritize DACA recipients from deportation, with exceptions for public safety threats. But, as Lederman and Ainsley note, a future administration could easily reverse such action. Also, "If the 5th Circuit rules against DACA, 1,000 existing DACA recipients will be at risk of losing their legal ability to work every single business day for the next 24 months," said Todd Schulte, the president and executive director of FWD.us. Yo, Congress: You can find a solution for Dreamers, and Americans want you to. 

FARMWORKERS — Apple farmers and immigration advocacy groups from Maine want the Senate to pass the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, reports Ari Snider for Maine Public. Harry Ricker, president of the New England Apple Council, said the timeline for applying for visas means farmers have to predict their labor needs and risk not having workers arrive in time for the harvest. The bill would address these and other concerns, Ricker said. Despite concerns from different corners about the bill, Beth Stickney of the Maine Business Immigration Coalition emphasizes its key reforms and the balance it strikes: "When you read the bill, you can tell that it's a compromise, and neither side got all of what they wanted." 

MIGRANT DEATHS — The fiscal year that ends tomorrow has been the deadliest for migrants at the southern border, NPR’s Joel Rose and Marisa Peñaloza report. More than 800 have died, according to government figures, and at a pace that is challenging first respondents and law enforcement officials. CBP blames criminal smugglers — and those smugglers are in charge thanks in part to the U.S. policy of "prevention through deterrence." Robin Reineke, a University of Arizona anthropology professor and co-founder of a nonprofit that assists families of migrants who have died or gone missing, argues for a different approach: more legal pathways that would steer migrants away from dangerous routes. "It’s a matter of human life and the costs, socially and morally to an entire generation of border residents, and families of those who died crossing," Reineke said.  

Dan 

P.S. Our very own Helena Coric spoke with KTHV’s Julissa Garza on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on citizenship applications: "We had this perfect storm in 2020, [as there] was an existing backlog of applications that weren’t being processed … Arkansas in particular, that year saw a backlog completion rate below 50%."