Moving Humanity Forward

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].  

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." 

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