The word "children" can bring to mind laughs, maybe a playground, colors, and other joyful images. But in migrant detention centers, the reality doesn’t align.  

Luis Zayas, author and professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Texas, says two elements mark migrant children's experiences in a detention center: deprivation and threat. Stella M. Chávez of KERA News spoke with Zayas as the Biden administration considers restarting family detention. 

"The Immigration and Customs Enforcement people decided that they would call these family residential centers. However, when you look at a place like Karnes [County] Detention Facility, it is an old county prison and has walls that are 20 feet high, no windows," Zayas notes. 

For other migrant children, the process of trying to seek safety in the U.S. is costing many months, even years, of lost education, José Ignacio Castañeda Perez reports in the Arizona Republic. Families who do make it into the U.S. face "a completely foreign education system that is often ill-equipped to serve migrant populations." 

Marissa Bejarano-Fernbaugh, a teacher in Louisiana, has worked with new arrivals. "These are some brilliant kids and the fact that they're missing out on the documentation or the paperwork or the resources, it's just such a brain loss for that entire generation," she said.  

Welcome to Thursday’s edition of The Forum Daily. I’m Dan Gordon, the Forum’s strategic communications VP, and today's great Forum Daily team includes Clara Villatoro and Thea Holcomb. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected]. 

NORTHERN NEIGHBOR — Welcoming immigration policies brought Canada a record population increase last year, just as "other developed nations grapple with slowing population growth," reports Jack Guy of CNN. President Biden is heading to Canada today, and migration is expected to be on the agenda, per Myah Ward of Politico. An eye-opener as the nations’ leaders meet: Among migrants who have crossed into the U.S. from Canada, the U.S. government has flown some to Texas as a deterrent, Ted Hesson and Jose Luis Gonzalez report in Reuters. 

HUMAN CAPITAL — Other countries are explicitly going after the skilled tech workers who fall through the cracks of the U.S. immigration system, report Emilia David and Paayal Zaveri of Insider. Japan, the U.K. and (yes) Canada are among the countries that are benefiting by welcoming more skilled workers. "Without change, and fast, experts say this could mean an entire lost generation of tech talent for American tech," David and Zaveri write. 

EFFECTIVE, IMPERILED — The Biden administration’s parole programs for people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who are seeking asylum are showing signs of big early success, Stuart Anderson writes in Forbes. Encounters at the Southwest border dropped by almost 98% for these countries between December and February. Republican state attorneys general are trying to block the programs, Anderson points out. 

CONTROVERSIAL BILLS — Today Texas lawmakers will discuss several controversial border security and immigration bills that Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has prioritized, Julián Aguilar reports for The Texas Newsroom. Among the bills is one that could create a new state offense for entering Texas illegally; and a proposal for a resolution that would reaffirm Texas’ ability to declare an "invasion" and urge the federal government to designate Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations. 

Thanks for reading, 

Dan 

P.S. Adriana Martinez, an artist and DACA recipient, is sharing her immigration story through the exhibition "Dreamer," per Sarah Mosqueda of The Los Angeles Times. "It is about celebrating our lives and all the struggles that have gone into us being able to live out our dreams," Martinez said.