NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

On Tuesday, President Biden signed three executive orders to begin the
process of undoing some of the Trump-era constraints on
immigration, Adolfo Flores and Hamed Aleaziz report for BuzzFeed News
. Among
the orders are creating a task force
 for
the separation of families at the U.S.-Mexico border, extensive
analysis of asylum processing
,
and re-examining the public charge rule
. 

While White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that
outcomes from these executive orders "will take some time,"
advocates are emphasizing the need to act with urgency. "[P]ain,
suffering, hunger, and violence will continue while the administration
reviews what to do next," said Linda Rivas, executive director of Las
Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center. "We continue to urge them to act as
quickly as they can. These people cannot continue to wait." 

Added Linda Corchado, an immigration attorney in El Paso: "If what the
Biden administration truly seeks is equitable access to justice, we
cannot wait another day as yet another asylum-seeker is illegally
turned away by Border Patrol agents on our border, while others are
subject to further harms in [the Trump administration's Migrant
Protection Protocols program]."  

My take: Immigration processes are about people. The administration
needs to act with the same urgency that the people most impacted
by Trump policies feel every day.  

In other news, my colleague Danilo Zak and I published a new report
 today that takes
a modern approach to modern challenges. We offer an evidence-backed
proposal to set immigration levels in a way that combats the worst
effects of demographic decline and protect the nation's social and
economic health - you can read more about Room to Grow: Setting
Immigration Levels in a Changing America
 and
access the full paper on our website. 

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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**MIDWEST MANUFACTURERS** - In an op-ed for The Indianapolis Star
,
Cummins, Inc. chairman and CEO Tom Linebarger makes the case for why
Congress needs to pass a law protecting Dreamers. In his company and
community, Linebarger writes that immigration "has been a driver of
economic growth, new talent and more vibrant communities." Noting that
immigrant contributions have helped the U.S. grow a resilient
economy that Americans have benefitted from for generations, Linebarger
"strongly urge[s] the Biden administration and Congress to take one
immediate and decisive step to unify our country. Start by passing
legislation that ensures permanent protection for 'Dreamers' or
codifies the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program." In
related news, The Texas Tribune's
 Patrick
Svitek reports on the new Texas Opportunity Coalition, launched with
the support of Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), to advocate for a
permanent legislative solution for Dreamers.  

**FRONTLINES** - A December study
 from our friends
at FWD.us found that one in 20 essential workers in agriculture,
housing, food services, and health care are undocumented immigrants,
and more than 70% of these workers have lived in the U.S. for more
than a decade. Yet these essential workers face the
fear of deportation at any moment, as Sen. Alex Padilla
(D-California), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), and Rep.
Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) write in an op-ed for CNN
.
The lawmakers call on their colleagues to recognize the more than 5
million undocumented immigrant workers on the
frontlines by "immediately [seizing] the opportunity to provide a
fair path to citizenship for undocumented essential workers by including
legalization in the next Covid-19 relief package to pass Congress." A
new Center for American Progress
 study
reaffirms this sentiment: "These workers and sectors are vitally
important to both the U.S. response to the pandemic and its recovery
from the resulting economic devastation, and they cannot be
jeopardized." 

**REUNIFICATION** - Immigrant advocates hope the Biden
administration plan for family reunification will go beyond addressing
those impacted by Trump's "zero-tolerance" policy, reports Adolfo
Flores of BuzzFeed News
. Of
the more than 5,500 families separated at the border since 2017, at
least 1,000 children were separated from their
families after zero-tolerance "for minor crimes, such as traffic
violations. In extreme cases, parents were separated because they were
HIV-positive or their children had dirty diapers and deemed unfit by a
US border officer, according to court documents." Christie
Turner-Herbas, director of special programs at Kids in Need of
Defense, pointed out that Border Patrol agents have used their
discretionary power to separate families for reasons that wouldn't be
allowed in the U.S. and have used "unreliable" records that accuse
parents of crimes they didn't commit. "I'm concerned Border Patrol
agents will continue to use their discretion
to separate," Turner-Herbas said. "There's nothing really stopping
them from doing it now." 

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**EXPULSION** - According to internal documents obtained
by BuzzFeed News
,
under Trump's direction, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
immediately expelled unaccompanied children from the U.S. border more
than 13,000 times between March 2020 and this past fall, Hamed
Aleaziz reports. President Biden has announced he won't continue
the practice, signing an order on Tuesday directing officials "to
review whether termination of the entire policy, which has also led to
thousands of adults being expelled, is necessary." Aleaziz points out
that expulsions at the border "are legally different from deportations,
which would mean an immigrant had actually undergone the immigration
process and was found to not be legally allowed to stay in the US." For
now, per a White House spokesperson, Border Patrol "will continue to
transfer unaccompanied children to the [Department of Health and Human
Services] Office of Refugee Resettlement so they may be properly cared
for in appropriate shelters, consistent with their best interest."  

**REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT **- Evangelical Christians involved in
refugee resettlement say that repairing Trump-era damage to the U.S.
refugee program "will take time but will happen," reports Mark Wingfield
of Baptist News Global
.
Citing comments from a late January panel convened by the Forum
in anticipation of the Biden administration's refugee ceiling
increase, Wingfield notes that both national security officials and
faith leaders agree that Trump's historically low refugee
admissions cap damaged U.S. global leadership. But while repairing
that damage requires welcoming more refugees, they also pointed out
that rebuilding the pipeline infrastructure will take time: "This
requires more education in the churches on who refugees are, the
economic contributions refugees make, that refugees are welcome to the
United States as a legal process and, from a Christian perspective,
framing all those concerns in the perspective of how to be faithful
followers of Jesus," said Matt Soerens, U.S. director of church
mobilization for World Relief.  

Thanks for reading,

Ali

 

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