Last Friday, news broke that the administration was considering drastic cuts to refugee admissions numbers. A meeting was to have taken place yesterday, with the president to make a decision.
In response, Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, joined former U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and others for a press call hosted by the National Immigration Forum to urge the administration to take its share of refugees. Anderson pointed out that “The Bible is a book of compassion toward others in need of the golden rule … we need to think about what we would want done for us if we were in their circumstances,” Samuel Smith reports for The Christian Post.
Other evangelical leaders, including Tony Perkins, Chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and a prominent Trump supporter, urged “the administration to extend its admirable commitment to advancing religious freedom to its refugee resettlement policy.”
Welcome to Wednesday’s edition of Noorani’s Notes.
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OPEN LETTER – In response to the Trump administration’s “public charge” rule, Michigan Health and Human Resource Director Robert Gordon penned an open letter assuring immigrants that their state would not prevent them from receiving public assistance, noting that the rule doesn’t affect individuals in the process of applying for citizenship, Niraj Warikoo reports at the Detroit Free Press. “We are all stronger when human beings can live with greater security and dignity by getting the help they are entitled to under our laws,” the letter reads. “We must not discourage individuals from getting benefits based on misunderstandings.”
MUSKEGON – Elsewhere in Michigan, a Muskegon County board resolution intended to make the area welcoming for immigrants devolved into a heated debate on immigration policy – throwing into stark relief the cultural and political divides engendered by the issue, writes Ben Solis in MLive. While local resident Delilah Burian noted that “these people we are considering here are already our neighbors, they are our educators, principals and congresspeople,” Judith Borghi, a former immigrant herself, argued “I’m not scared of new people coming here, but they have to be legal.”
TEMPORARY PROTECTED STATUS – While Trump administration efforts to end the Temporary Protection Status (TPS) program have been blocked in court, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)’s refusal to issue new work permits has created employment hurdles for 300,000 people nationwide who have received temporary protection, writes Steph Solis at MassLive. “It’s huge. It’s their livelihood. It’s their jobs. It goes without saying, but there’s a family attached to each of these jobs,” said Tom Smith, an attorney at Justice at Work in East Boston. Meanwhile, CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez reports the administration has decided not to grant TPS to Bahamians affected by Hurricane Dorian.
NO THIRD COUNTRY – Following a meeting with the Trump administration evaluating a June agreement between the U.S. and Mexico to stem the tide of migration northward, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard argued that the success of joint efforts made a “safe third country” agreement unnecessary and political unpalatable, Camilo Montoya-Galvez reports for CBS News. “The Mexican strategy has produced important results … The trend is irreversible," said Ebrard.
EL NORTE – 35 years after the release of the film El Norte, which tells the story of siblings seeking refuge from the Guatemalan Civil War and helped inspire the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, its avowed Catholic director Gregory Nava is re-releasing the film with the hope of a similar response, writes Pablo Kay in Angelus News. “The wisdom of the Bible is both simple and timeless. …‘When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born,’” quotes Nava from Leviticus 19:33-34. Find a showing near you here. Proceeds from the screenings will go to survivors of the El Paso Shooting.
Thanks for reading,
Ali
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