NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

After net immigration fell to its lowest levels since the 1980s under
the Trump administration, there's "little doubt" that the Biden
administration will welcome more immigrants than its predecessor - a
shift that will not only help us emerge from an economic crisis, but
presents a "historic opportunity" to reestablish our image and legacy as
a welcoming nation.

In an op-ed for The New York Times
,
Jorge Ramos lays out the challenges that President-elect Biden will face
- from asylum seekers stuck in border camps to the millions of
undocumented immigrants living and working in the U.S. - and the
opportunities it has to build a better immigration approach.

"Yes, there will be more immigrants in the United States with Mr. Biden
in the White House," Ramos concludes. "That's the United States I
recognize and admire, the one that allowed me to become a citizen -
and the one that almost disappeared during the Trump administration. Now
what I want above all else is for the immigrants who come after me to
have the same opportunities and freedoms I've had."

Welcome to Friday'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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**H-1B RULE ADVANCES**-

****The Trump administration posted a final rule on Thursday, to be
formally published today, that would establish new rules for
"high-skilled" H-1B visas, Ethan Baron at Mercury News

reports. The new rule would make the process wage-based rather than
lottery-based, a change that Stuart Anderson at Forbes

points out will put startup companies, public schools, international
students, younger IT professionals, and health professionals working in
rural areas at a disadvantage. However, the changes may not last long:
Baron notes that the Biden administration has said it will "halt or
delay all regulations issued by the Trump administration in its waning
days."

**IMMIGRANTS COUNT**-

****Anomalies in census data are further delaying census counts, making
it unlikely that President Trump will be able to follow through on his
plan to exclude undocumented immigrants from census apportionment,
report Brittany Renee Mayes and Tara Bahrampour of The Washington Post
.
The "historically unprecedented" plan "sparked a flurry of lawsuits, and
three federal courts ruled that it was illegal." Terri Ann Lowenthal, a
former staff director of the House census oversight subcommittee, notes
that Trump "could still try to pressure the [Census B]ureau to rush the
process, skip steps that would help ensure accurate results, and give
[Commerce] Secretary [Wilbur] Ross what essentially is incomplete data
for apportionment before he leaves office on January 20."

**LAST-DITCH CHANGES**- With less than two weeks left in office, the
Trump administration is making last-ditch attempts to effectively end
asylum and close the country's doors to those seeking safety at the
U.S.-Mexico border. According to internal documents obtained by BuzzFeed
News
,
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has issued a new policy
directive making it harder for children to seek asylum by requiring ICE
officers to individually review whether an immigrant child is
unaccompanied each time they encounter the child - a change that
"could lead to making some children ineligible to have their asylum
claims initially heard and processed by an asylum officer at United
States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)," Hamed Aleaziz
reports. While the Biden administration has pledged to reverse many of
Trump's harmful immigration policies in its early days, the web of
policies enacted by the Trump administration to dismantle asylum could
take much longer, perhaps years
,
to untangle.  

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**"THIS IS WHAT MY PARENTS RAN AWAY FROM**" -

****After fleeing wars and coups in their home countries, many
immigrants saw worrying similarities here in the U.S. on Wednesday,
Hibah Ansari and Joey Peters report in the Sahan Journal
.
Speaking with immigrant community leaders in Minnesota, Ansari and
Peters heard stories of both dismay and optimism. "For those of us who
saw what happened in our original country, we never thought it would be
possible in the United States of America," Habon Abdulle, executive
director of Ayada Leads, shared. State Rep. Tou Xiong, whose family came
to the U.S. from Laos, added that "[this] is what my parents ran away
from. This is not what America is supposed to be." Still, some of those
Ansari and Peters spoke to remain hopeful: "I'm still confident that
the resiliency of the American democratic institutions and the
democratic apparatus is going to withstand this," said Wynfred Russell,
a Brooklyn Park City Council member.

**'I LOVE THE CAPITOL'**-

****Joining

****the staff cleaning up the Capitol after Wednesday's riots was Rep.
Andy Kim (D-New Jersey), Mike Catalini writes for the Associated Press
.
Kim, the son of Korean immigrant parents, became the first Asian
American to represent New Jersey in Congress after he was elected in
2018. "When you see something you love that's broken, you want to fix
it," Kim said. "I love the Capitol. I'm honored to be there ... What
else could I do?"

Thanks for reading,

Ali

 

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