NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

Tomorrow, President Biden is expected to announce a task force to
reunite migrant families separated at the border under Trump
administration, reports Sabrina Rodriguez of POLITICO
. Immigrant
advocates and attorneys warn, however, that both undoing Trump's
family separation policy and starting a reunification process won't
be easy.  

Of the more than 5,500 families that were separated under the Trump
administration's "zero-tolerance" policy, the parents of more than
600 children still have not been located. In addition to the task
force, "Biden is also expected to announce executive action focused on
refugee resettlement and asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border."  

In related news, POLITICO's
 Marianne
Levine reports that the Senate will postpone a final vote to confirm
Biden's nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS),
Alejandro Mayorkas, because of inclement weather. The vote, originally
scheduled for this afternoon, will be held tomorrow. (As we've noted
previously, confirming Mayorkas would be a step towards smarter
immigration policy
.)  

Welcome to Monday'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]
. 

[link removed]

**TPS EXTENSION** - Acting DHS Secretary David Pekoske extended
Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Syrians by 18 months after
consulting with interagency partners and assessing Syria's current
situation, reports Homeland Security Today
. The
move "enables over 6,700 eligible Syrian nationals (and individuals
without nationality who last resided in Syria) to retain their TPS
through September 2022 and allows approximately 1,800 additional
individuals to file initial applications to obtain such
status." (Our TPS factsheet
 breaks
down what this means for recipients and for the U.S.)  

**BN(O)** - The U.K. "is preparing to welcome potentially tens of
thousands of migrants from Hong Kong" after Sunday marked
the opening of a new visa for residents
 for the
former British colony following a sweeping national security law
 imposed by China,
report James Griffiths and Sarah Faidell for CNN
.
After the law was imposed, the U.K. government announced that
Hong Kongers with British National (Overseas) passports, introduced
in the final years of British rule over Hong Kong, could earn British
citizenship. "Under the new program, those with BN(O) status and their
eligible family members will be able to travel to the UK to live,
study and work, becoming eligible for settlement in the UK in five
years, and citizenship 12 months after that." The number of eligible
people could be as high as 3 million, but the impact of the policy
remains murky: Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian
said on Friday that China "will no longer recognize BN(O) passports
as travel documents or identification proof, 'and reserves the right
to take further measures.'"  

**"A MEAL AROUND A TABLE"** - Evangelical leaders anticipating
President Biden's announcement on refugee resettlement
plans say that more facts can improve public acceptance of
the resettlement program, reports Holly Meyer of the Nashville
Tennessean
. Under
the Trump administration, the refugee
program's historically bipartisan support diminished and became
more politically polarizing - a shift that will take effort to
undo.  One way to improve perceptions of refugees? "Proximity changes
things," said Nate Bult of Bethany Christian Services. "Those
one-on-one conversations [with refugees], having a meal around a table
and viewing someone not as a refugee, but as a person - a human
created in the image of God ... It's really those individual
interpersonal moments that, that can change the public perception of
refugee resettlement." 

[link removed]

**BORDER DEATHS** - Not only was last summer the hottest on record,
but also a major part of the deadliest year on record for migrants
crossing the border from Mexico into the U.S., reports Samuel Gilbert
of The Guardian
. According
to Humane Borders
,
remains of 227 migrants were found along the border in
2020. The Trump administration's harsh approach, including
the "zero tolerance" family separation policy, also played a role in
the high death toll, often  pushing people to cross in more
remote, dangerous areas. "We need to be especially mindful of how
various policies serve the same purpose ... to deter migration by making
it more deadly," said Texas community organizer Norma Herrera.  

**DEPORTED** - Rosa, a survivor of the August 2019 El Paso
Walmart shooting, was deported Wednesday for two outstanding citations
from 2015 following a traffic stop for a non-working brake light,
reports Patricia L. Garcia of KTSM-TV El Paso
.
Rosa and her sister had assisted investigators on the Walmart case,
providing important information about the attack. "Rosa is a survivor
of one of the most horrific events to ever take place in El Paso. She
came forward and presented herself to both El Paso police and FBI
officials to give a statement of what she saw on that fateful day," said
Anna Hey of Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services. "This decision
amounts to a re-victimization of this young lady, who only came forward
to help build the case against the shooter in the racist attack." 

**DUE PROCESS** - In addition to "Remain in Mexico
,"
advocates are calling on the Biden administration to end expedited
removals of asylum seekers under the Trump administration's Prompt
Asylum Claim Review (PACR) and Humanitarian Asylum Review Process (HARP)
policies, reports Fernie Ortiz for Border Report
. Critics say
PACR and HARP "deny asylum-seekers access to legal counsel when
they're screened by border authorities, and it often leads to quick
deportation without granting them asylum claims or scheduling future
court hearings." A report from the U.S. Government Accountability
Office found that under PACR and HARP pilot programs, DHS denied 69% of
asylum claims between October 2019 and March 2020. "This report proves
what we have warned from the start ... that asylum-seekers forced to go
through the Trump administration's pilot programs do not and will not
have a meaningful opportunity to truly seek asylum in the United
States," said Andre Segura, legal director for the ACLU of Texas.  

Thanks for reading,

Ali

 

DONATE

 

**Follow Us**

 

[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]

 

 

 

The

**Only in America** podcast brings you to the people behind our
nation's immigration debate.

 

Listen now on:

 

**iTunes**
,
**Stitcher**
,
**Spotify** ,
and **more.**

 

 

National Immigration Forum

50 F Street NW, Suite 300

Washington, DC 20001

www.immigrationforum.org

 

Unsubscribe from Noorani's Notes
or opt-out from all Forum emails.

 

                                               
           
_________________

Sent to [email protected]

Unsubscribe:
[link removed]

National Immigration Forum, 50 F Street NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20001, United States