In communities across the country, the immigration debate isn’t about politics and policy. It’s about culture and values. It’s also about institutions — including American corporations — stepping up and leading.
Earlier this month, “numerous companies organized by the National Immigration Forum signed on to a ‘New American Workforce’ public letter promoting immigrant integration, including citizenship drives and English courses, policy support, and community services. Additionally, a half dozen — Driscoll’s, Walmart, Chobani, Lyft, Uber, and Ben and Jerry’s —have formed an immigration corporate roundtable advocating for a joint platform,” reports Tovin Lapan in Fortune.
As I wrote on Medium, “as the corporate trajectory of the last few years has taught us, from Walmart to Driscoll’s to many others, maybe all we need to say to each other, immigrant or not, is, ‘mejor contigo.’ Better with you.”
Click here to learn more about our Corporate Roundtable for the New American Workforce.
From New York City, welcome to this Monday edition of Noorani’s Notes.
Have a story you’d like us to include? Email me at [email protected].
“MOST DANGEROUS…” – The U.S. and El Salvador announced an accord on Friday that permits the U.S. to divert asylum seekers at our southern border to El Salvador, “pushing migrants into one of the most dangerous countries in the world,” reports Nick Miroff in The Washington Post. Specifically, the deal ensures that “Asylum seekers from Nicaragua, Cuba and other nations who pass through El Salvador en route to the U.S. border will be eligible for return there once the accord is implemented.”
FAMILIES DETAINED – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says it will soon resume detaining parents and children in a facility outside of San Antonio, Texas, Maria Sacchetti reports for The Washington Post. The administration stopped holding families at the Karnes County Residential Center this spring due to the “record influx of families” coming to the border, but “after a decline in apprehensions in the summer, officials said in a statement on Saturday that they will revert Karnes ‘back to a family residential center in the near future.’”
“I’M AFRAID” – At the age of 11, Hefzur Rahman, a Rohingya refugee, was sent away by his parents on a boat to flee genocide in Myanmar. Now resettled with a foster family in Elk Rapids, Michigan, Hefzur stays up at night worrying about his family back in Myanmar, writes Miriam Jordan in a powerful piece for The New York Times. “I’m afraid my mom and dad will die before I can touch them again.” Hefzur stands little chance to be reunited with his family: “Intent on curbing immigration, the Trump administration will admit no more than 30,000 refugees this fiscal year, the lowest number since the program’s inception in 1980.”
BAD LANDLORD – A New York judge ordered a landlord to pay a $17,000 fine “for threatening to call immigration authorities on an undocumented tenant,” Taylor Romine and Mirna Alsharif report for CNN. Sapna V. Raj, deputy commissioner for the law enforcement bureau of the city's Commission on Human Rights, told CNN: “It sets important case precedent for the interpretation of our Human Rights Law to include the weaponization of ICE to intimidate or harass someone in housing as a violation.”
MINNESOTA NICE – Behind the wheel of his yellow school bus, John Deere cap on, Don Brink greets blond-haired white children who board the bus on the edge of town, but is wary of the “strange” Hispanic children waiting at their bus stops in what he calls “Little Mexico,” Michael E. Miller writes in The Washington Post. Ahead of a ballot measure to expand Worthington, Minnesota’s, school system, “‘Minnesota nice’ has devolved into ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ window signs, boycotts on businesses and next-door neighbors who no longer speak. A Catholic priest who praised immigrants was booed from the pews and has received death threats.” The short-term pressures are real, but “While nearby towns have shrunk and their schools have closed, Worthington has grown.”
YOUTH PASTOR – Douglas Oviedo, a Honduran youth pastor, fled death threats from gangs due to his religious ministry and political activism. Earlier this week, Oviedo was one of the very lucky few to win an asylum claim after tighter rules took hold in January, writes Daniella Silva in NBC News. “Oviedo is hopeful he can bring his wife and three children, a 10-year-old son, 7-year-old daughter and 4-month-old baby, with him to California.”
Thanks for reading,
Ali
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