NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

Today we get to think about immigrants and immigration differently. 

What we need as a nation has not changed. As over 180 corporations, law
enforcement and faith leaders wrote yesterday
,
"Strong leadership and bipartisanship from Congress and the
administration, starting on day one, are critical to build an
immigration system that works for U.S. families, grows our economy, and
strengthens communities across our nation while welcoming immigrants who
seek to contribute as critical partners in our society."   

On President Joe Biden's first day, as Michael D. Shear details in the
New York Times
,
he will submit to Congress legislation that would give many of the 11
million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. the opportunity to
become citizens in eight years, while addressing root causes of Central
American migration and prioritizing smart border controls. And as Justin
Sink at Bloomberg

reports, Biden plans to swiftly sign executive orders that would halt
funding to the border wall, end the travel ban, strengthen Deferred
Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and more.  

This morning, the Biden team released a fact sheet

laying out the bill.  

Welcome to your Inauguration Day edition of Noorani's Notes. As
always, if you have story to share from your own community, please let
me know at [email protected]
.

**ONE MORE SEPARATION** - On the last full day of the Trump
administration, immigration authorities separated brothers ages 19 and
9, deporting the 19-year-old and sending the 9-year-old to a shelter -
all because the older brother was missing a form. As Adolfo Flores
reports in BuzzFeed News
,
Vladimir Fardin, 9, and Christian Laporte, 19, each had a visa. Milli
Atkinson, legal director at the San Francisco Immigrant Legal Defense
Collaborative, says that despite other options, "What [Customs and
Border Protection] chose to do instead was take this 9-year-old's visa
away, put him in a situation that turned him [into] an 'unaccompanied
alien minor,' and [he] had to be turned over to a shelter. They did this
knowing that yesterday his mother had offered to fly to San Francisco,
meet him at the airport and take him home." 

**HOMELAND SECURITY** - Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden's nominee for
secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), faced an array
of questions during a Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday, Brian Naylor
and Barbara Sprunt of NPR

report. Mayorkas has credentials as former deputy secretary of DHS and
head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, they note. (Listen
here to
Mayorkas answer questions about applying the rule of law to migrants
seeking refuge in the U.S.) But there's more, as Dayton, Ohio, Police
Chief Richard Biehl writes in the Dayton Daily News:

"Mayorkas' commitment to and respect for law enforcement, combined
with his understanding and empathy for the community, make me confident
that under his leadership, we can bolster community safety and achieve
commonsense reform."  

**AND SPEAKING OF SECURITY** - Incoming President Biden plans to
rescind Trump's travel ban, which affects mostly Muslim countries, Dan
Merica of CNN.com

reports. That's good news for our national security, as former Trump
DHS official (and current Forum senior national security advisor)
Elizabeth Neumann lays out in our latest "Only In America" podcast
episode - part of a series on Biden's first 100 days. "You can
achieve the enhancement of security without having to issue a travel
ban," Neumann tells me in the episode. In case you missed it, Neumann
also authored a paper

on the subject and spoke, with former Ambassador Ryan Crocker, on a
press call

Friday. 

**A REPRIEVE** - Also on Trump's last full day in office, the
president issued a memo

allowing certain Venezuelans to remain in the country. The memorandum,
issued late yesterday, notes: "The deteriorative condition within
Venezuela, which presents an ongoing national security threat to the
safety and well-being of the American people, warrants the deferral of
the removal of Venezuelan nationals who are present in the United
States." This is good news for Venezuelans facing threats of
deportation, who can now breathe a little easier knowing they won't be
deported to a country in the throes of a humanitarian crisis.  

**A LITTLE BIT OF HOPE** - As Corrie Boudreaux from El Paso Matters

reports, the San Juan Apóstolo Catholic Church at the U.S.-Mexico
border provides care and support for migrant women who remain in Mexico
hoping their asylum claims will be heard by the U.S. government,
including those who are pregnant. "This is the shelter where I've felt
very safe," said Leticia, a young mother from Central America who has
been waiting in Juárez with her 3-year-old son since December 2019. "We
haven't had any news about whether it's possible for us to have the
opportunity to enter (the United States). So we are a little desperate
because we don't have the help of any lawyers who could assist us or
at least give us a little bit of hope."   

Thanks for reading,
Ali 

 

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