I hope everyone had a restful Labor Day. I know I did. Needed that.
Onward to the Tuesday edition of Noorani’s Notes.
Yesterday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it would re-open pending cases of those applying for health-related deportation deferment. This reverse in policy comes after USCIS “without public notice, eliminated a ‘deferred action’ program that had allowed immigrants to avoid deportation while they or their relatives were undergoing lifesaving medical treatment,” writes Miriam Jordan in The New York Times.
In other good news, Ismail B. Ajjawi – the incoming Harvard freshman who was deported to Lebanon after his visa was revoked upon his arrival in the U.S. – has been allowed back into the country in time for the start of his classes, Shera S. Avi-Yonah and Delano R. Franklin report for The Harvard Crimson.
This is why we advocate.
VENEZUELANS – President Donald Trump may consider protecting one group of immigrants from deportation as he looks toward re-election: Venezuelans. “Trump officials are discussing allowing Venezuelans to live and work legally in the United States through one of two existing programs used to protect immigrants who come from nations that are devastated by war or natural disasters. … Offering such protections would play well with Hispanics in Florida — not just the state’s sizable Venezuelan-American population but like-minded Cuban Americans. It’s a state Trump needs to win a second term,” Anita Kumar and Daniel Lippman report for Politico. Other non-Venezuelan immigrants who unfortunately do not live – or have communities who vote – in Florida, like Temporary Protected Status holders in Massachusetts, are now looking at Canada as a better land of opportunity, writes Phillip Martin at WGBH.
RURAL NEBRASKA – The 2019 Nebraska Rural Poll mailed surveys to 6,260 households in rural Nebraska earlier this year, and the results show divided feelings about immigration, David Bartle writes in the Daily Nebraskan. “According to the data, 38% agree that immigrants have a positive impact on rural Nebraska, while 30% disagree.” Additionally, 84% believe immigrants should learn to speak English in a reasonable amount of time, and 44% believe immigrants drive down wages. Which takes me back to an important report Sarah McElmurry wrote for the Center for American Progress, “Proactive and Patient: Managing Immigration and Demographic Change in 2 Rural Nebraska Communities.”
JAPAN – The island nation is a good example of what the United States could become if immigration is drastically reduced. “As many as 8 million houses in Japan are vacant, and the trend is only deepening. Rural villages are disappearing, and more and more Japanese towns and suburbs have become ‘dying communities’ where children are a rare sight; authorities barely manage to find the care workers needed to look after legions of retirees.” The problem “has recently become bad enough to force even the conservative administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to rethink its stance on migration,” writes columnist Francisco Toro in The Washington Post.
THE FELLOWSHIP – Ending on a positive note: Since 2017, volunteers at the Fellowship at Western Oaks Church of the Nazarene in Oklahoma City have helped 52 people gain their citizenship by offering English language classes for immigrants, reports Carla Hinton in The Oklahoman. The volunteer staff received training from the U.S. Department of Justice and Office of Legal Access Programs. “The Immigration Center is just another way to show people that we care and to show them that God has a plan and a future for their lives,” said Rev. Hardy Powers, lead pastor at The Fellowship at Western Oaks.
Thanks for reading,
Ali
REAL WORLD IMPACT – Minnesota’s Assistant Education Commissioner Daron Korte says that the state’s education officials are concerned that free and reduced-price lunch enrollment will drop following the changes to the “public charge” rule, Elizabeth Shockman reports in MPR News. “Korte said he is concerned about a cascade effect. If families take themselves off SNAP benefits, they won’t be automatically enrolled for free and reduced-price lunch in Minnesota.” The change could also could mean less funding for school districts: “If fewer students are signing up for free and reduced-price lunch, Korte says, districts will receive less funding” – which will impact all students.
BIRTH TAX – As President Trump considers doing away with birthright citizenship, a report by the National Foundation for American Policy reminds us that it’s not just immigrants who would be impacted by this change. “Based on current costs to verify the citizenship status of children born overseas to U.S. citizens, changing the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment will cost new parents in the United States approximately $600 in government fees to prove the citizenship status of each baby and likely an additional $600 to $1,000 in legal fees,” reports Stuart Anderson in Forbes.
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