NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

Important news last night.

In an interview with Agencia EFE
,
incoming National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and incoming Domestic
Policy Advisor Susan Rice laid out the Biden administration's approach
to regional migration, asylum processing and border policy. Rice and
Sullivan encouraged Central Americans considering coming to the U.S.
seeking asylum to wait, saying changes to U.S. asylum policy under the
Biden administration will take time.

Said Rice, according to a readout

of the interview from the Biden team: "The long-term plan is centered on
three pillars, which we believe will enhance order, safety, and security
at our border and across the region." These longer-term solutions
include addressing root causes of migration, expanding pathways for
legal migration and rethinking asylum processing "to make it more
efficient and fair."

While efforts to enact shorter-term solutions at the border will begin
immediately, Rice noted that "it will take months to develop the
capacity that we will need to reopen fully."

As processing capacity increases and bilateral relations are
re-established, Sullivan said President-elect Biden "will work to
promptly undo [safe third country] agreements" and "restore due process
protections and begin processing those asylum seekers who were enrolled
into the program in a fair, safe, and orderly manner."

My take: The chaos created throughout the region by the Trump
administration's approach to border and migration policy will take a
Herculean effort to overhaul. This announcement is a promising first
step to restoring safety, order and humanity at - and beyond - the
U.S. border.

Welcome to Tuesday's edition of Noorani's Notes. If you have a story
to share from your own community, please send it to me
at [email protected]
.

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**CITIZENSHIP TEST** - Even before the Trump administration
lengthened the citizenship exam and increased the fee for
naturalization, making the application more difficult to pass and less
accessible, studies showed that two out of three
 Americans
wouldn't pass the test. That's why Heba Gowayed, an assistant
professor of sociology at Boston University, started a clinic for Syrian
refugees applying for citizenship in the U.S. Gowayed writes about what
a more just and humane approach could look like in an op-ed for Teen
Vogue
:
"We must reinstate the old refugees quotas, roll back the questions, and
decrease the fees added to the citizenship exam. But if we stop there we
will leave an inhumane vetting system intact, a depleted social
assistance system, and a citizenship exam that puts an undue burden on
low-income immigrants."

**'REFRESHING' CHANGE** - Last Friday, President-elect Biden's
nominee for Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, joined
faith groups to discuss the incoming administration's immigration and
refugee policy in a meeting attendees described as "refreshing," report
Jack Jenkins and Emily McFarlan Miller for Religion News Service
.
The change from the Trump administration's relationship with faith
groups is marked: "The door just has not been open for discussion for
the last four years for many of us in the human rights community. ... It
was nice to actually have a meeting where you can discuss issues -
that's a 180 degree change from what we've been enduring for the
last four years," said Mark Hetfield of HIAS.

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**UNDOCUMENTED IN SUBURBIA** - Paco Alvarez writes for the Chicago
Reader

that growing up undocumented in the suburbs can be isolating - but for
many immigrants, places like the Chicago suburbs where he grew up are
actually a rich site of civic engagement and support for undocumented
immigrants. Giselle Rodriguez, a 23-year-old undocumented immigrant,
"noticed that in the suburbs, most nonprofit organizations tailored
toward immigrants focus on offering social services ... But she says
they were patching holes in the system, rather than advocating for
policy change." After earning her master's degree in social work and
serving at a public school where she also helped create a "Dreamers
club," Rodriguez "cofounded the Center for Immigrant Progress
 with other undocumented
and first-generation Latinx activists-partially to address the lack of
advocacy work being done in Lake and McHenry Counties." Rodriguez, who
does not have Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), feels that
immigrants who don't fit the "dreamer" narrative are too often left
out of the conversation, pointing out "that many older people, including
her mother, have started doing political work after seeing the work
their children have done, but their stories often aren't told in the
media."

**DETENTION DEATH** - A 51-year-old man from the Bahamas died in U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody at the Adams County
Detention Center in Natchez, Mississippi - the first such incident in
this fiscal year, which started in October. The man, who had been in ICE
custody for more than a year, died of a heart attack. The news follows
a House Oversight Committee
 investigation
this September which "found that ICE detainees died after receiving
inadequate medical care and that jail workers 'falsified records to
cover up' issues," Hamed Aleaziz at BuzzFeed News

reports. "That same month, the House Homeland Security Committee
 released
a report that found people detained by ICE are often given deficient
medical care, and that detention centers use segregation as a threat
against immigrants."

Thanks for reading,

Ali

 

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