Federal immigration reforms providing migrants with permanent legal status and work permits could help. 

"The Lord says to welcome the stranger. It’s the saddest thing, the quantity of people who come and we can’t help them," said the Rev. David Monduy, Iglesia Rescate’s senior pastor.  

"Jesus also was a migrant," added Sister Consuelo Gómez, who with her network continues to help newcomers find jobs and decent housing. "We try to help so that they can get ahead on their own." 

Beyond providing food, clothing, and some housing relief, some churches have held information sessions to help migrants understand their legal options and new immigration policies, in addition to building community through faith. 

Welcome to Monday’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]. 

‘I HAVE NO WORDS’ — A 13-year-old girl was among the 27 minors hired to clean a Nebraska meatpacking house, and now her family faces child-abuse charges and potential deportation, report Maria Sacchetti and Lauren Kaori Gurley of The Washington Post. The contractor that hired the minors has paid a civil fine but to date has faced no criminal charges. "I have no words," the girl’s mother said last month after police led her husband away in handcuffs for violating state child labor laws by driving the young girl to work. Our take: Accountability must extend to the government, as well as hirers — not just families trying to make a living.  

THREE THOUSAND MILES — For The New Yorker, Stephania Taladrid chronicles a large Venezuelan family’s 3,000-mile journey to New York City from Colombia, traversing the dangerous Darién Gap jungle and five other countries on foot and by car. Among the family are Alexis and Yenis, who plan to stay in the city, with Alexis finding work as a line cook at a Dominican restaurant in Brooklyn. Don’t miss the powerful photographs by Oscar B. Castillo, either. 

ASYLUM LIMITS — Some immigration experts and officials continue to raise questions about the recently proposed asylum rule, per Hamed Aleaziz of the Los Angeles Times. Among the concerns are how the limitation stresses where asylum seekers are making their claims as opposed to the merits of their cases, as Stephanie Leutert, director of the Central America and Mexico Policy Initiative at The University of Texas Austin, notes. For more on the impact of the potential rule on migrants, see Michelle Hackman and Eric Bazail-Eimil's reporting in The Wall Street Journal. 

PROTECTING ALL AFGHANS — The U.S. and global democratic allies must do more to help Afghanistan under Taliban rule, writes Dr. David Curry, president and CEO of Global Christian Relief, in an op-ed for Religion News Service: "We cannot forget the resilient people of Afghanistan who are suffering under this terrible, oppressive regime. Afghan Christians continue to find ways to circumvent the Taliban to live out their faith. The world should find a way for all Afghans to live in freedom — now." 

Thanks for reading, 

Dan  

P.S. Attention fans of American history and/or a certain hip-hop musical: D.C.’s Immigrant Food devotes its latest "Think Table" to our immigrant founding father