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].

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.

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