NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Virginia) recently hosted a
roundtable with the Virginia Farm Bureau, the Virginia Agribusiness
Council, Farm Credit of the Virginias, AmericanHort and several
others on immigration reform and the agriculture workforce, CBS19
News
 reports. 

Attendees "talked about how Congress can [and needs to] find common
ground as it seems to modernize the immigration system in the United
States, protect rural economies, and cut red tape for producers."  

"Particularly in the middle of this economic crisis, we need to focus on
passing legislation, including an infrastructure bill and immigration
reform, that can support our recovery and contribute to the long-term
growth of our economy," said Spanberger. 

To understand why the Biden administration is prioritizing
immigration reform in its early days, Giovanni Russonello at The New
York Times
 points
to broad public support: "Polling data shows that the country largely
objected to President Donald Trump's crackdown on undocumented
immigrants, and in fact grew considerably more favorable to immigration
over the course of his administration. ... By 2020, the number of
Americans saying immigration should either be kept at its current level
or increased reached seven in 10, the highest on record." 

Welcome to Tuesday's edition of Noorani's Notes. Heads
up: Over the next several weeks, guest editors will periodically
be taking the NN reins, and you're in good hands. If you have a
story to share from your own community, please send it to me
at [email protected]
.  

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**FARMWORKERS** - The U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021
underscores
the need to improve working conditions for farmworkers, reports Ximena
Bustillo of POLITICO
. The
bill would require the Departments of Homeland Security and Labor to
create a commission to improve the employment verification process and
increase protections for workers. Bustillo notes that a recent report
 from The
Economic Policy Institute found that over 70% of federal labor
standards investigations of farms found violations, including wage theft
and inadequate housing and transportation. Said Sen. Bob Menendez (D-New
Jersey), who just introduced the legislation in the Senate: "Many
[Republicans] have interest in parts of the legislation. Many of them
are representatives of Ag states and so they care very much about the
elements on farm workers." Here's hoping. Farmworkers are essential
workers, and bipartisan solutions for them should be important for both
Democrats and Republicans. 

**GARLAND **- Attorney General nominee Merrick Garland
addressed immigration issues during the first day of his confirmation
hearing, The New York Times
 reports.
Pledging to cooperate with investigations of the Trump
administration's "zero-tolerance" family separation policy, Garland
stated: "I think the policy was shameful. I can't imagine anything
worse than separating parents from their children. And we will provide
all of the cooperation that we possibly can." Amid a spike in hate
crimes against Asian Americans, Garland also pledged to support efforts
to combat discrimination and hate incidents, reports The Washington
Post
's
David Nakamura: "The role of the [Justice Department's] Civil Rights
Division is to prosecute those cases vigorously, and I can ensure you
that it will if I am confirmed." 

**REOPENED** - The Biden administration has reopened a Trump-era
migrant facility for children in Carrizo Springs, Texas, reports Silvia
Foster-Frau at The Washington Post
. The
facility will hold a maximum of 700 children ages 13 to 17 to help
with pandemic-related capacity challenges, according to government
officials. Immigration lawyers and advocates "question why the Biden
administration would choose to reopen a Trump-era facility that was the
source of protests and controversy," but officials say their options are
limited. "If we could find another way, that'd be great," said Mark
Weber, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human
Services. "On the flip side, these kids just come in and they're
turned loose on the street, they end up being homeless kids. ... Every
kid that comes into this program is a symptom of a broken immigration
system." 

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**POPULATION SQUEEZE** - Years ago, Ron Brownstein described the
growing dependence of older white Americans on younger non-white
Americans to sustain the nation's economy and retirement system as a
collision between "the brown and the gray." In a CNN
 analysis drawing
on a range of perspectives, including the Forum's recent  Room to
Grow
paper, Brownstein lays
out how the demographic "blind spot" in
the immigration debate could leave the nation yearning
for more people: "There's mounting demographic evidence the
U.S. will pay a heavy economic price in the next few decades if it
can't break the immigration stalemate to alleviate its population
squeeze." 

**PREYED UPON**- A lawsuit
 from The
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) alleges that the bail
bond firm Libre by Nexus "duped U.S. immigrants into wearing
electronic tracking bracelets and paying thousands of dollars in fees in
hopes of getting them removed," reports Stephen Gandel of CBS News
. According
to the suit, Libre has been "preying on" detained immigrants by
offering to put up the bond money needed for their release awaiting
trial, requiring them to wear tracking bracelets and pay a $420 monthly
fee in return. The CFPB also alleges
that immigrants believed the money they were paying Libre went
towards their original bond, when in fact none of it did. The lawsuit
is backed by the attorneys general of Massachusetts, New York and
Virginia. 

**A BIBLICAL ISSUE** - In an op-ed for Florida Today
,
The Rev. Joel Tooley makes the case for immigration as not just a
political, security or economical issue but a biblical one. "Throughout
the Bible, there are three vulnerable groups of people repeatedly
mentioned in the same passages - orphans, widows and immigrants -
whom God commands his people to love, to treat justly and to protect
from exploitation and mistreatment," Tooley writes. "And one way that we
can demonstrate love is by urging our elected officials to finally pass
immigration reforms that would allow vulnerable immigrants to step out
of the shadows and earn the chance to be citizens of this country that
they love."  

Thanks for reading,

Ali

 

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