NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

President Biden is preparing to push for the "broadest possible
overhaul of the nation's immigration laws" with the expected rollout
of the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021
 today,
reports Michael D. Shear of The New York Times
.  

While the White House is publicly insisting that Congress pass
the broad overhaul, top White House immigration aides signaled
Biden's willingness to consider a more piecemeal legislative
strategy in a call with activists on Wednesday. 

"We're always open to having a broader discussion, but absent that, we
want to move forward with pieces that can pass," said Kerri Talbot,
deputy director of the Immigration Hub. "We would love to have
bipartisanship. I'd love to have that conversation again. But it's
really up to Republicans."  

With legislative efforts ramping up, it's important to remember how
critical immigrants are to pandemic recovery. For this week's episode
of Only In America
, I talked
to science journalist Laura Spinney about the critical need
for COVID-19 vaccine outreach in immigrant communities.  

Welcome to Thursday'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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**LIFT THIS BAN** - The Justice Action Center, American Immigration
Lawyers Association and the Innovation Law Lab are in
court today to take on
 Trump's immigration
ban, which could block around 525,000 legal immigrants from entering
the U.S. if allowed to remain in effect. In late December, Trump
extended the ban to March 31, meaning that Ijeoma Golden Kouadio,
a chemist and diversity visa lottery winner from Ivory Coast, would
lose her opportunity to come to the U.S. In an op-ed
for The Washington Post
, Kouadio writes,
"There's a solution, however, to our predicament: Biden could rescind
the suspension before these visas expire." Lift this ban, Mr.
President.  

**ARIZONA **- The Arizona Republic's
 Rafael
Carranza explains why Democratic Arizona Sens. Mark Kelly and Kyrsten
Sinema are critical to the Senate push for bipartisan immigration
reform. Referencing the pivotal roles that former Arizona
Republican Sens. Jeff Flake and John McCain played in previous reform
efforts, Carranza writes that Kelly and Sinema "are positioned in the
split Senate to influence whatever legislation comes together." Mark
Delich, a former legislative assistant to Sen. McCain who currently
works at FWD.us, told the Republic: "It's too big and important of an
issue to the state to avoid it, and so I don't think [lawmakers] have
a choice but to engage it. I think you look at how the 2020 election
played out, it only benefits them to engage in a positive manner and try
to find a solution that is bipartisan." 

**TUITION** - An Arizona state Senate committee has approved
Republican state Sen. Paul Boyer's bill that would repeal an
existing law and allow Dreamers to qualify for in-state tuition
at universities and community colleges, reports Howard Fischer of
the Arizona Capitol Times
. The
bill still faces hurdles: It needs
to pass the full Republican-controlled state legislature and would
require voters' ratification in 2022. "These young adults ... for all
intents and purposes are Americans even though they don't have legal
status recognized by the federal government," state Sen. Boyer said
of the bill. "And as far as I'm concerned, the least we can do is
provide for them for in-state tuition. This gives them a little bit of
hope." 

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**PARAMETERS ON ICE** - U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) is preparing guidelines that would establish
strict parameters to "curtail enforcement measures, focusing more
narrowly on immigrants who pose a national security, border security or
public safety risk, to focus the agency's resources," report Maria
Santana and Priscilla Alvarez of CNN
. A draft
memo, prompted by Biden's executive actions on immigration
enforcement, breaks down ICE priorities into three
categories: National security (those "engaged in terrorism or
terrorism-related activities or espionage"), border security (those
"apprehended at the border or port of entry on or after November 1,
2020"), and public safety ("those convicted of an aggravated felony
or convicted of an offense"). Another key point: "The approval to
carry out an enforcement action against a particular noncitizen will not
authorize enforcement actions against other noncitizens encountered
during an operation if those noncitizens fall outside the presumption
criteria identified above."   

**MOVING HUMANITY FORWARD** - A new Vice News
documentary, 

**Moving Humanity Forward**, profiles Hamdi Ulukaya, founder and CEO
of Chobani (which co-chairs the Forum's Corporate
Roundtable for the New American Workforce
). The
documentary "[showcases] the positive impact refugee integration in
society has on business and communities," Dairy Foods
 reports. 

Thanks for reading,

Ali

 

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