The arrival of the group this weekend shows a rapid process: The Biden administration program officially launched the program last Tuesday.  

But the other side of the story is that Title 42 was expanded for Venezuelans arriving at the border. At least 3,000 Venezuelans have been expelled at the U.S. border during the first week of its implementation, per Lizbeth Díaz and José Luis González of Reuters.  

"It's very concerning to see people who are outside the shelters, there's no space," said Dana Graber Ladek, the Mexico chief of mission for the United Nations. 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Chris Magnus told Jordan Fabian and Ellen M. Gilmer of Bloomberg that they are still evaluating this shift: "This policy is very new and so to even look at what’s happened in a week, we’re not saying, ‘OK, well, success, mission accomplished.’ I think it’s a starting point." 

But how are we defining "success"? The tiny percentage of Venezuelan migrants able to seek humanitarian parole pales in comparison with thousands being denied their right to seek asylum. (Here’s our deeper dive.)  

The Los Angeles Daily News editorial board writes, "It’s a bad excuse to use [Title 42] to keep out those escaping tyranny. … Our great legacy of asylum is precisely the mechanism that should be used for refugees fleeing a totalitarian regime in the Americas."  

That's the bottom line even as Customs and Border Protection reported final fiscal year 2022 border numbers on Friday. Migrant encounters along the southern border totaled 2.7 million in the year that ended Sept. 30, Luke Barr of ABC News reports. As usual, my policy colleague Danilo Zak has important context: "[T]he data does NOT show record levels of border arrivals or unauthorized entries. That's because of high repeat crossing rates and low numbers of ‘got-aways’ compared to earlier years." 

One more quick border note: A group of Christian women is visiting the border at El Paso, Texas, and Juárez, Mexico, tomorrow and Wednesday with We Welcome. Reporters, please send inquiries my way. 

Welcome to Monday’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].   

TPS FOR ETHIOPIANS — Thousands of Ethiopians in the United States now will be able to apply for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) because of the ongoing war in their home country, reports Hamed Aleaziz of The Los Angeles Times. "The United States recognizes the ongoing armed conflict and the extraordinary and temporary conditions engulfing Ethiopia, and DHS is committed to providing temporary protection to those in need," Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas said in a statement. The U.S. estimates that 26,700 Ethiopians currently in the U.S. could be eligible for TPS’s 18 months of protection. 

A NEW LIFE — Aziza Akbari, who recently resettled in Aurora, Colorado, is among the tens of thousands of Afghans who were allowed entry into the U.S. via humanitarian parole, per Alan Gionet of CBS Colorado. "Being a refugee is very hard," Akbari said of her 11 months in Pakistan after she escaped Afghanistan. She had burned documents showing that she had worked with foreigners and was an English teacher. "Now that I’m here [in the U.S.], it’s amazing; I’m happy being here," she added. Without congressional action, namely the Afghan Adjustment Act, evacuees such as Akbari have no certain future here. "They did their part of the job, but now we didn't do our part of the job," Safi Rauf, president of the Human First Coalition, said of people such as Akbari. "It is a betrayal of the American promise, the American integrity." 

LABOR SHORTAGE SOLUTIONS — Immigration solutions for farmers and farmworkers could solve labor challenges the agricultural sector in North Carolina is facing, Pastor Ryan Sims writes in a column for the Greensboro News & Record. He points out that the number of migrant farmworkers in his state ranks No. 6 nationwide, and that agriculture is a $10 billion industry in North Carolina. "But there’s more at stake than the economy," Sims writes. "Immigrants are an integral part of our communities and our churches … Christians should feel compelled to advocate for the inherent dignity of every human life, and this is just as true for migrant farmworkers, who often face dangerous working conditions, abuse and exploitation." 

ADAMARIS’ STORY — Just five years ago, Adamaris Lopez, senior co-captain of the George Washington High cheer team in Philadelphia, was fighting for her father not to be deported back to Mexico. For almost a year, he lived inside a Philadelphia church for sanctuary, report Kristen A. Graham and Jeff Gammage of The Philadelphia Inquirer. As the oldest child and most proficient English speaker, Lopez "was doing protests left and right," helping out at home, and balancing school and cheer. Her father was later granted a U visa. "They’re the epitome of a Philadelphia story," said Erika Almirón, a rights-group consultant who worked closely with the family. In January, Lopez and her team are heading to a national competition in Dallas thanks to Lopez’s efforts to fundraise and to Philadelphians who donated more than $30,000.

P.S — For many young Latinos, their immigrant parents’ resilience is a motivator to seek higher education, Scarlett Lopez-Rodriguez, a high school junior, reports for The Mercury News as part of the journalism training program Mosaic Vision. The love in these stories shines through.