The U.S. and Canada have struck an agreement that soon would permit each country to turn away asylum seekers who cross the U.S.-Canada border without authorization, Hamed Aleaziz and Erin B. Logan report in the Los Angeles Times.

The new policy would apply to people who are not citizens of either country and who are caught within 14 days of crossing. It would expand the nations’ 2004 "Safe Third Country Agreement" by requiring all migrants — not just those arriving via ports of entry — to have sought asylum in the country they’ve passed through.

In addition, Canada is expected to make 15,000 slots available for Western Hemisphere migrants to apply and enter the country legally, Aleaziz and Logan report. As we noted earlier this week, the number of migrants crossing the U.S.-Canada border in each direction has been increasing.

Elsewhere in news related to migration:

A House subcommittee addressed rising immigration at sea in a hearing yesterday afternoon. (Quinn Owen, ABC News)
Hotels in New York City are now home to thousands of migrants. (Karen Zraick, The New York Times)
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney writes compellingly of his city’s welcome of migrants. (Newsweek)

Welcome to Friday’s edition of The Forum Daily. I’m Dan Gordon, the Forum’s strategic communications VP, and today’s great Forum Daily team 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].

There will be no Forum Daily on Monday, but we’ll be back Tuesday.

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM — A judge has ruled that the government violated a New York pastor’s First Amendment rights when it interfered with her ability to minister to migrants in Mexico, reports Alex Riggins of The San Diego Union-Tribune. The judge ruled that DHS also violated the Rev. Kaji Douša’s religious-freedom rights under a 1993 law.

AROUND THE TABLE — The Zahid family’s food is as appealing as their story is heart-wrenching. In the Boston Globe, Francie Lin tells of the Zahids’ terrifying departure from Afghanistan as the country fell — and the food they hope to share with more people in their new home of Northampton, Massachusetts.

In local welcome this past week: The nonprofit Global Impact Initiative has distributed 80 laptops to help Afghan refugees adjust to life in the U.S. (Angela Shen, Fox 7 Austin)
For the Crosscut Reports podcast, Sara Bernard speaks with Thanh Tan, a child of Vietnamese refugees who has been helping new Afghan arrivals to Washington state.
"We saw the need. And we said, 'You know what? We have to do something about it,'" said Dr. Rabia Jafri, founder of Hampton Roads Refugee Relief in Virginia. (Penny Kmitt, WTKR)

‘SPIRIT OF JUSTICE’ — A coalition of 130 religious organizations sent a letter to President Biden asking him not to reinstate migrant family detention, per Rafael Bernal of The Hill. "We … invite you to be inspired by the spirit of justice and mercy that runs throughout our collective faiths and stories," they wrote. "Policies should be guided from a place of compassion and concern for those who are on the margins, including migrants and asylum seekers — not from a place of fear and trepidation."

LOCAL FOCUS — Many immigrant advocates are turning to state legislatures to push for immigration-related bills on matters such as driver’s license access and in-state tuition, Suzanne Monyak reports in Roll Call.

Thanks for reading,

Dan