On Wednesday, the Trump administration announced a deal that would give the United States the ability to send asylum seekers from the border to Honduras, “a nation with one of the highest murder rates in the world,” writes Nick Miroff in The Washington Post. While the agreement — which follows similar deals with El Salvador and Guatemala — has yet to take effect, the Trump administration is circulating a proposal detailing procedures for potential “safe-third country agreements” that would allow officials to deport people at the border, according to a draft interim final rule obtained by BuzzFeed News.
The Migration Policy Institute’s Sarah Pierce told BuzzFeed’s Hamed Aleaziz: “They are establishing blanket regulations so that they can quickly implement any safe third country agreement they sign moving forward.”
Earlier this year, the Forum looked at the push and pull factors driving migration from Central America. If we are serious about solving the crisis at our border, we need short-term and long-term solutions that address those push factors, including efforts to counter human smuggling operations, provide aid to Northern Triangle countries to strengthen the integrity of local institutions, and establish in-country relocation areas for the internally displaced.
Agreements that strand migrants in unstable countries only exacerbates problems and puts families at risk.
Welcome to the Thursday edition of Noorani’s Notes.
THE DECLINE – According to the Census Bureau, the U.S. gained immigrants at the slowest pace in a decade last year, with a net increase of just 200,000, writes Sabrina Tavernise in The New York Times. Because such declines — which were particularly pronounced among people from Latin America and Asia — are unusual in good economic times, many experts link the drop to federal policies. “It’s what you would expect if it became more difficult for some immigrants to get to the U.S. and others found the country less welcoming,” said Randy Capps, director of U.S. research for the Migration Policy Institute.
THE IMPACT – If you were wondering about the effect of declining immigration growth, look no further than Montclair State University, where stricter immigration policies are hindering the university’s ability to admit students and fill staff vacancies, reports WBUR in an interview with Elizabeth Gill, director of international employment and immigration at the university. In response, Montclair’s president and 30 other university leaders in New Jersey sent a letter to state legislators noting that the success of their schools “depend on our ability to attract motivated students and scholars from throughout society and around the world.”
THE IMPACT, JAPAN – Although Japan is “often said to pride itself on homogeneity and an aversion to outsiders,” employers are becoming aware of their constraints as the population declines, reports Daniel Moss in Bloomberg Opinion. “In recent conversations with local business owners, few expressed qualms about adding more of the foreign-born workers to their payrolls. With the jobless rate at a microscopic 2.2% – and two jobs for every applicant in the Tokyo area – pragmatism is starting to kick in.” On our current trajectory, we could have the same problem.
BORDER WALL BUDGET – In a rare showing of bipartisanship, Democrats and Republicans in the Senate passed a resolution to end the national emergency which President Trump has used since February to raid $3.6 billion from military projects in order to fund the border wall, reports Li Zhou at Vox. On the other side of the legislative branch, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2203 (116), voting along party lines, to limit family separation, increase training for border agents and set guidelines for the treatment of detained migrants, Eleanor Mueller writes at Politico Pro [paywall].
COURTHOUSE RULES – Law enforcement officials in New York are suing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), for unconstitutional arrests near courthouses, Emily Saul writes in the New York Post. New York Attorney General Letitia James and Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez filed the lawsuit, which claims that the ICE courthouse policy “disrupts the effective functioning of our courts, deters victims and witnesses from assisting law enforcement and vindicating their rights, hinders criminal prosecution, and undermines public safety.”
TAKING A LYFT TO SUNNYSIDE – For this week’s episode of “Only in America,” I sat down with Mike Masserman, Head of Global Policy and Social Impact at Lyft, to discuss the ways Lyft is supporting immigrant drivers by helping them improve their English. I also met Fatimo Akinlade, a Lyft driver from Nigeria, who talks about her eagerness to participate in the English classes Lyft is providing. And this evening, Kal Penn’s new comedy, Sunnyside, premieres on NBC. Penn plays Garrett Modi, a disgraced New York City Council member who finds himself in a new job tutoring immigrants as they prepare for the citizenship test.
Thanks for reading,
Ali
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