Asylum is dead. Humanitarians are forever.

He broke both feet, then he found wings

Hello readers,

You expect book content from me and I will deliver. Today, can I tell you a story first? It may be too long for email, so please click on the title to be taken to the browser version and read the whole thing. Book list follows.

Casa Alitas, Tucson’s welcome center for asylum seekers released by Customs and Border Patrol, closed this week. Over five years, more than half a million people who otherwise would have been released to the streets received humanitarian aid at county shelters like this one. In most cases, this meant a few boxed meals, a shower, a night or two of shelter while arranging travel to a sponsor in another city. For men, a chance to swap the bright orange shoes worn in detention for something less likely to attract attention on a plane.

A bin of orange ICE detention shoes collected from asylum seekers at the shelter

Catholic Community Services, county officials and a cadre of volunteers made these brief transitions possible on a warehouse scale, offering u…