More Mexican migrants are flying into Canada with hopes of crossing the northern border into the U.S., despite frigid temperatures, report Didi Martinez and Julia Ainsley of NBC News. 

From Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, crossings from Canada into the U.S. increased to 42,000, compared with 16,000 during the same period in 2021, per CBP data. 

To date, Mexicans have made up more than 60% of all Title 42 expulsions. "But for those who can afford the roughly $350 one-way plane ticket from Mexico to Montreal or Toronto, their prospects of not being sent back under Title 42 are much better," Martinez and Ainsley write. 

Some migrants who have reached New York City are traveling to Canada, Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura reports in The New York Times, with multimedia by José A. Alvarado Jr. At the same time, a network of volunteers in the city is focusing on welcome. Oralis Daniela Narvarte, a Venezuelan asylum seeker, is among the group supporting a donation drive for migrants every Saturday, reports Anna Lucente Sterling of Spectrum News NY1.  

Separately, misinformation regarding migrant transportation motivated hundreds to show up at the U.S.-Mexico border Wednesday night hoping to be bused to Canada, Shelby Kapp of KTMS reports. A few days ago, Laura Benshoff of NPR explained how the politics around migrant transport have evolved. 

Welcome to Friday’s edition of The Forum Daily. I’m Dan Gordon, the Forum’s strategic communications VP, and the great Forum Daily team also includes Dynahlee Padilla-Vasquez, Clara Villatoro and Katie Lutz. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected].  

AFTER TITLE 42 — President Biden denied that his administration is planning massive deportations of non-Mexicans migrants after Title 42 ends, reports Jordan Fabian of Bloomberg. In an interview with Telemundo on Thursday, Biden said he is focusing on policies and more resources at the border. "I’m making sure that we ask the Congress to provide us more security at the border. Number one," Biden said. "More agents. Number two. Number three, more sophisticated machinery." 

ASYLUM CHANGES? — The Biden administration is preparing a bill that would change the asylum system to speed up the resolution of claims in large-scale processing centers at the U.S.-Mexico border, reports Ted Hesson of the Reuters. The bill could consider different asylum processes based on nationality.  

RESCUES UP LAST YEAR — U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics released this week show a significant increase in border rescues in fiscal year 2022, particularly in the Del Rio Sector of South Texas, reports Rick Jervis of USA TODAY. "Sure, you’ll see the rescues increase, but it’s because of our polices," said Vicki Gaubeca of Human Rights Watch. "We’re not preventing this from happening with better policies." 

Dan 

P.S. Known as the Queen of Salsa, "Cuban icon Celia Cruz is the first Afro-Latina to be selected to appear on the U.S. quarter," reports Rebecca Gelpi-Ufret of ABC News.