NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

On Thursday, President Biden announced an executive order
 to
officially start the process of raising the annual refugee
admissions cap to 125,000 after historically low numbers
under President Trump, Brett Samuels reports for The Hill
. "It's
going to take time to rebuild what has been so badly damaged. But
that's precisely what we're going to do," Biden said. 

In addition to rebuilding refugee resettlement infrastructure, Biden is
"asking the State Department to consult with Congress 'about making a
down payment' so his administration could increase the limit to
125,000 during its first full fiscal year, which would run from Oct. 1,
2021, through Sept. 30, 2022."  

The order "shows that strength is rooted in compassion," Filippo
Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said in a
statement. "It signals that the United States will do its part, as it
has historically done, to help the world's most vulnerable people,
including by welcoming them in the United States." 

For a national security perspective on the importance of raising the
refugee ceiling, the Forum's senior advisor on national security
issues, Elizabeth Neumann, authored a report
 on how
robust refugee programs aid national security in December.  

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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**DREAM ACT OF 2021** - Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) and Lindsey
Graham (R-South Carolina) announced bipartisan legislation
 on
Thursday that would give Dreamers the opportunity to earn permanent
legal status, reports Andy J. Semotiuk for Forbes
. This
is the fourth time Sens. Durbin and Graham have co-sponsored
legislation including protections for Dreamers, and this year marks
the 20th anniversary of the first introduction of the Dream
Act. Earlier this week, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) joined The Texas
Opportunity Coalition  in support of a
legislative solution for Dreamers, per Tom Benning at The Dallas
Morning News
. And
our friends at FWD.us
 and the Coalition
for the American Dream
 applauded the
bipartisan efforts in the Senate to provide permanent protections to
Dreamers. See our statement here
.  

**H-1B CHANGES DELAYED** - The Biden administration is
delaying the Trump administration's plan to replace the lottery
allocation system for H-1B visas with a wage-based system, Ethan
Baron reports for the East Bay Times
.
According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS),
these visas intended for workers with "specialized
skills" will continue to be allocated through the lottery system
for the rest of the year. "Delaying the change until the end of this
year is intended to give the federal government 'more time to develop,
test, and implement the modifications to the H-1B registration system
and selection process,' the agency said in a brief news release
." 

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**'A CHANCE TO TELL THE TRUTH'** - In an opinion
column for MSNBC
, Alicia
Menendez explains why Republicans should consider President
Biden's actions on immigration reform a win. To start, she
writes, Biden is open to taking a piecemeal approach
 to
his proposed immigration legislation, opening the door for bipartisan
cooperation. Instead of doubling down
on Trump-era policies "predicated on falsehoods about the ties
between immigration, crime and security
 that
have been allowed to fester over decades" -falsehoods that make
America less safe - Menendez concludes that "[f]or Republicans
and Democrats alike
,
overhauling immigration is a chance to tell the truth ... It's time
to admit that the resistance to reform is not actually about America's
safety and security, that it never has been."   

**'BECOME AMERICANS'** - In an op-ed for The xxxxxx
, our
friend and Forum Senior Fellow Linda Chavez makes the case
that only immigrants can save U.S. government entitlements like Social
Security and Medicare. Citing our new Room to Grow
 paper published Wednesday,
Chavez writes that setting immigration levels to reflect America's
changing demographics is "only the beginning of the reform process."
She's right; while setting immigration levels is a critical step,
"the key to any successful immigration proposal is integrating new
Americans ... We need more immigrants, but we also need to help them
become Americans-not just for their sake, but for ours." 

Thanks for reading,

Ali

 

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