NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

The Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy, which led to
thousands of family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border, is
officially gone. Good.   

Per Michael Balsamo and Colleen Long at the Associated Press
: "Acting
Attorney General Monty Wilkinson issued the new memo to federal
prosecutors across the nation, saying the [Justice] department would
return to its longstanding previous policy and instructing prosecutors
to act on the merits of individual cases."   

Later this week, the Biden administration is expected to announce
a family reunification task force in the hopes of bringing peace
to the hundreds of families that remain separated. 

Meanwhile, a polling update from Morning Consult
:
57% of voters believe undocumented immigrants should be allowed to
stay in the country and become citizens if they meet certain
requirements - an 11-point increase from April 2017.  

Welcome to Wednesday'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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**BIPARTISANSHIP? **- In an analysis for CNN
, Ron
Brownstein underscores how President Biden's immigration
reform strategy differs from those of the last two presidents who
attempted comprehensive reform, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. While
Bush and Obama "engaged in extended bipartisan negotiations that
ultimately failed to produce a law," Brownstein writes that the new
administration is taking a different tack. "My goal is to see if there
are some legitimate players on the Republican side who want to invest a
little capital and are serious," said Sen. Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey),
the chief Senate sponsor of Biden's proposed immigration legislation.
"If the answer to that is yes, I would take weeks with them. I am not
going to take months with them." Our take: Let's give bipartisanship a
chance. The fact that two bipartisan immigration bills
 passed
last month, along with the broad support
 for bipartisan
solutions, may offer some hope.

**MAYORKAS **- Our friend and colleague Linda Chavez, a former
Reagan White House official and senior fellow here at the Forum, wrote a
great piece for The xxxxxx
 on
why Alejandro Mayorkas, if confirmed to lead the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS), would be the best person to help Biden tackle
immigration in a bipartisan way. "Immigration should not be a partisan
issue," Chavez writes. "Ours is a country that has been built-from
before its founding-by people born elsewhere. It wasn't that long
ago that Republican presidents and elected leaders embraced the Statue
of Liberty as the symbol of American freedom and opportunity." The
Mayorkas nomination was voted out of the Homeland Security Committee
 yesterday -
watch this space. 

**NEW DHS STAFF **- The Biden administration's new hires
at DHS reflect a desire to reverse many of Trump's hardline
immigration restrictions, Priscilla Alvarez reports for CNN
.
Many incoming DHS staffers have extensive backgrounds in immigrant
rights, immigration law and refugee resettlement. "The Biden immigration
team is stocked with seasoned professionals who understand the nuances
of immigration enforcement," said John Sandweg, who served at DHS
under Obama. Peter Boogard, another Obama DHS official and
current communications director at FWD.us, voiced a similar
sentiment: "It will have a substantial difference in the ability of the
department to execute because people understand what's going on."  

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**TPS OR DED **- Efforts to pass legislation granting Temporary
Protected Status
 (TPS)
to Venezuelans have been revitalized,
reports Carmen Sesin of NBC News
. Sen.
Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey), one of the senators who introduced the new
bill, pointed out that unlike Deferred Enforced Departure
, which
Trump granted to Venezuelans during his final days in office, TPS "is
based in statute and is legal immigration status." TPS would give
around 200,000 Venezuelans an opportunity to live and work legally in
the U.S. - a win not just for our communities and economy, but a
move that reflects our values by providing safety and opportunity
for Venezuelans who have fled "a crumbling economy and a humanitarian
crisis under socialist leader Nicolás Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo
Chávez."  

**PRIVATE PRISONS I **- What do Diomede, Alaska, and El Paso,
Texas - 3,461 miles apart - have in common? Well, many of the
tribal community residents of Diomede are shareholders of the Bering
Straits Native Corporation (BSNC) - and many are unaware that the
company staffs a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE) detention facility in El Paso, reports René Kladzyk of El
Paso Matters
. BSNC's
opaque structure, combined with Diomede's physical remoteness and
technological limitations, mean many shareholders are unaware that the
dividends they receive are partly derived from labor done at the ICE
facility. It's a connection that's upsetting for some shareholders
given the share of ICE detainees who are indigenous (recent
 studies
 put
the number at one in five). "It's almost like indigenous on
indigenous - I don't wanna say abuse, but mistreatment, and
that's just wrong," said one BSNC shareholder. "If Bering Straits
is listening, I want them to know that there are many shareholders who
disagree with this, we want it shut down." Kladzyk notes that
President Biden has promised
 to
end federal government use of private prisons, but "whether that has
any implications for federal oversight on Alaska Native corporations who
contract with ICE is unclear." This is an in-depth piece that's well
worth your time.  

**PRIVATE PRISONS II **- On the campaign trail, President Biden
promised to end the federal government's use of private prisons and
"make clear that the federal government should not use private
facilities for any detention, including detention of undocumented
immigrants," report Laura Barrón-López, Tyler Pager and Sam
Stein for POLITICO
. Yesterday,
the administration "acted on the first part of that promise - issuing
an executive order to end the use of private prisons by the Department
of Justice." But no word yet on if, or when, the order would
extend to private immigrant detention facilities. "[The administration
has] now directed DOJ to phase out the use of private prisons, meaning
there is a recognition that no one should be profiting off the caging of
human beings," said Community Change Action President Lorella Praeli.
"It's a vision that's incomplete if it does not tackle ICE
detention." 

Thanks for reading,

Ali

 

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