NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul is set to resume processing thousands
of Special Immigrant Visa
(SIV) applications for Afghans after months of delays in the
interview process as a result of the COVID-19
pandemic, reports Susannah George of The Washington Post
.  

The SIV program, which was created to support Afghans and Iraqis who
aided U.S. forces, offers recipients a fast track to U.S. citizenship,
among other benefits. But last year more than 7,000 SIVs allocated to
Afghans went unissued, and as of September nearly 19,000 applications
were stuck in processing. 

Refugee advocates say the backlog could be felt "for years to come"
barring dramatic changes from the Biden administration. "Because this
is a multistep process ... if one step is put on hold, it's
inevitable that a bulge will form at that point in the
system," said Deepa Alagesan, a senior attorney with the
International Refugee Assistance Project. 

Call me an optimist, but these are the types of dramatic changes that
could gain broad support.  

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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**ROOT CAUSES** - President Biden's proposed immigration
legislation includes measures to address the root causes of
migration from Central America via a $4 billon four-year
plan, reports Jasmine Aguilera at TIME
. While
the plan - which "aims to decrease violence, corruption and poverty
in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras" and would establish
refugee resettlement centers throughout the region - marks an
increase in investment compared to previous administrations, advocates
note that it's still only a start (and that's if Congress passes
it). "It is only going to be effective if it's sustainable over
decades," says Ariel Ruiz Soto, a policy analyst at the Migration
Policy Institute. Ruiz also notes that it shouldn't be a solo
effort: "What will make it more successful is if Mexico and the U.S.
are speaking with the same voice about investment in the region."  

**BORDER UNCERTAINTY** - Over at the Los Angeles Times
,
Molly O'Toole reports on the daunting challenges the Biden
administration faces along the border. An estimated 30,000 migrants are
stuck in limbo on the Mexican side of the border under the Trump
administration's Migrant Protection Protocols
 (MPP) a.k.a. "Remain
in Mexico," and even though the Department of Homeland Security
suspended new MPP enrollments this week, those at the border are left
without answers. "I am just deeply worried that every single day the
Biden administration waits to give clear indications of what's going
to happen at the border after Jan. 20, they put more people in danger,"
said migration researcher Savitri Arvey. Salome Limas, a social
worker at the Madre Asunta shelter in Tijuana, expects the border to
stay closed but is hopeful that "[t]he way of seeing the migrants will
definitely change - not as enemies, but as people looking for safety
in their lives." 

**FLORIDA REPUBLICANS** - Some Florida Republicans - though
certainly not all - are expressing openness to working with President
Biden on immigration, reports Anthony Man of the South
Florida Sun Sentinel
. Rep.
Mario Diaz-Balart issued a statement
 on
Inauguration Day saying he is "fully committed to working with the
Biden Administration and my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to
fix our broken immigration system once and for all." Sen. Marco Rubio,
meanwhile, tried to find something of a middle ground: "America should
always welcome immigrants who want to become Americans. But we need laws
that decide who and how many people can come here, and those laws must
be followed and enforced. There are many issues I think we can work
cooperatively with President-elect Biden, but a blanket amnesty for
people who are here unlawfully isn't going to be one of them." Well,
it's a start. 

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**EVANGELICAL SUPPORT** - In spite of conservative 
lawmakers' concerns over President Biden's sweeping
immigration proposal, Harvest Prude of World Magazine

reports that Congress is under pressure to act from a range of outside
groups. "There's an incredibly broad range of American institutions
pleading with congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle to pursue
this sort of reform this year," said Matthew Soerens, national
coordinator of the Evangelical Immigration Table. Charles
Davis at Business Insider
 reports
that some evangelical Christian leaders are giving President Biden
credit for "acting as the Bible instructs" on immigration.  ICYMI:
On Wednesday the Evangelical Immigration Table issued a statement
 in
support of the administration's initial steps while urging bipartisan
solutions in Congress.  

**EDITH **- In an op-ed for Boulder Weekly
, Denver
Institute for Faith & Work
 founder and CEO Jeff Haanen shares
why he was among the 180 signatories on a bipartisan statement
 in
support of immigration reform, writing that his experiences as a
pastor in the Hispanic community led him to understand that "when
[laws] cease to serve the common good, they need reformation." He
shares the story of Edith, one of the many young immigrants he
pastored who were "so eager to contribute to the only country they had
ever known."  Haanen writes that statement signatories are calling
for "changes to our immigration law which strengthens communities,
addresses border security, grows our economy, expands visas for high
tech and agricultural work, and regularizes the status of the estimated
10-12 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., including more than
800,000 Dreamers like Edith." (The statement was picked up in Politico
 and The Verge
,
as well.) 

Thanks for reading,

Ali

 

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